What makes your design firm stand out from the competition? What is your unique selling proposition? As beautiful as the interiors you create may be, many other designers are also capable of creating beautiful interiors. Some designers are expanding their creative offerings with wellness-based design.
What is Wellness-Based Design?
These designers aim to create spaces that are not only beautiful but also incorporate the health and wellness goals of their clients. Beyond working with individual residential design clients, wellness-based design is on the rise in design firms working for real estate developers, hotel groups, retirement communities, health care firms, and others. After all, the design of interior spaces can have a direct effect on the health and wellness of those occupying the spaces.
Whether for a short stay or as a permanent resident, those occupants will be affected by the light in the space, the air they breathe, and the sounds and feelings experienced while being in that space. Wellness-based interiors are spaces consciously designed to support holistic well-being, thus creating healthier and happier environments.
How to Incorporate Wellness-Based Design
How can you incorporate wellness-based design into your business and your projects? Or if you’ve already been doing it, how do you turn it into a differentiation or a competitive advantage?
It is generally agreed that there are five elements of wellness-based design:
- Safety and Security
- Accessibility
- Functionality
- Health and Fitness
- Comfort and Joy
When incorporating these elements into your design, delve into your detailed ideal client profiles to identify specific areas of wellness-based design that might apply to your clients–if they are interested at all. This research is an example of the importance of very thorough client profiles as well as the importance of the initial interview. You want to capture as much information as possible. Then address how you can take their interest in health and wellness and incorporate that into the design of their project.
1. Safety and Security
When a client does not have to worry about the safety or security of their space, it allows them a sense of comfort and peace. They can take full advantage of the aesthetics of the design.
Depending on the location of the project and the needs of the clients, there are a variety of items you might incorporate. Possibly an enhanced security system, with surveillance cameras and access to the control systems via their smartphones. These items can be particularly important if the project is not their permanent residence, or if they travel a great deal. You might also include emergency response plans, and it might be important to include access for a family member, friend, or neighbor in case of an emergency.
Safety and security can also relate to the materials specified for the project, such as non-slip flooring in the bathroom. It also might include the ability to control the lights from their favorite seating or from their bed. If there is a disturbance in the middle of the night, they would have the ability to turn on outside lights from their bed. Or, to hopefully eliminate a fall, it can be helpful to have a remote control or voice control to raise the level of lighting in a room when needed. By incorporating knowledge of these options into your design repertoire, you also open up your interior design firm to working on multigenerational projects or projects for older clients who have unique safety considerations.
The sense of comfort and peace can also come from incorporating relaxing colors, inviting textures, and soft lighting. Despite the technology available, don’t forget the basics of design that can contribute to making a space feel safe and cozy!
2. Accessibility
Wellness-based design may apply directly to your clients, or it may be related to their being able to welcome friends and family of various levels of ability. Creating interiors that are designed for all ages and abilities allows clients to remain in those spaces longer. It also does not limit them if they have temporary physical challenges requiring the use of crutches, a walker, a wheelchair, etc.
Accessible spaces also mean that they are inviting for all friends and family, no matter their physical challenges. Some of your clients may want to have a home that will easily accommodate visits by family or friends who may be physically limited. Or they may be welcoming family members to live with them who may have physical challenges–whether health-related or size-related, as with young children!
I have had clients who were so happy with the renovations to their home because they were now able to entertain friends and family members who were previously unable to access their home. We incorporated universal design principles in all of our clients’ projects–whether it be widening doorways, non-slip floors in the bathrooms, or spa-like stepless showers. Not all grab bars have to look institutional, and so we used decorative grab bars that we sold as “jewelry for the bath”! A client does not need to be facing accessibility challenges for their inclusion to be a good idea. For clients who are in their “forever home” or expect their home to become multigenerational in the future, investing in accessibility early can be a smart idea.
Hospitality design also should welcome everyone–beauty does not have to be sacrificed for accessibility. Include both in your project designs. Don’t just do the bare minimum of legal requirements, either. Accessibility helps everyone, not just those who need it now!
Don’t forget the value of social accessibility. For commercial workspaces, as well as multifamily real estate developments and retirement communities, consider including communal spaces. These spaces can encourage social interaction in areas with game tables, televisions, or outdoor kitchens.
3. Functionality
Functionality relates to wellness-based design as it can promote productivity and efficiency as well as ease of use. In commercial office interiors as well as residential real estate development, functionality requires flexible floor plans. This allows your design firm to appeal to a variety of clients in different industries, as well as create spaces that can be easily adapted to different uses. Incorporating smart technology can also add to the functionality when it comes to lights, security systems, and other technologies present in the space.
Also, in residential and commercial design, incorporating universal design not only increases accessibility but can increase functionality by expanding the appeal to a variety of clients.
4. Health and Fitness
Health and fitness are key components of wellness-based design. Many clients these days appreciate your creating spaces that encourage their physical activity and healthy habits. Whether incorporating home gyms, swimming pools, or outdoor spaces for residential projects or designing these spaces for commercial health spas, hospitality design, etc., create spaces that are inviting. Use your design expertise to create spaces where clients enjoy spending time–where they enjoy a healthy lifestyle. I had one client who loved being healthy but didn’t love working out. So, we incorporated her love of the outdoors with her indoor gym, creating glass doors that could open to the outdoors during good weather. When the weather was not as appealing, she still had walls of windows to enjoy her beautiful garden and view.
Healthy design extends to healthy living habits. Healthy living habits can include meditation and quiet rooms for commercial spaces to aid in mental health and relaxation.
Also, healthy design involves incorporating natural materials such as wood, stone, and plants. These materials can reduce stress and create a more relaxed, healing atmosphere in addition to incorporating natural light in interiors. Spaces focused on biophilic design will aim to take advantage of the natural light available as well as views of nature. Just as in residential design, bringing nature or views of nature into commercial and healthcare design is very beneficial. A friend of mine whose firm specializes in healthcare design has as their mission statement, “Empowering Wellbeing Through Design.” They have advocated for the importance of views of green space–trees, plants, etc.–for healing. Consequently, those views are important in their hospital design. It can come in the form of artwork depicting outdoor spaces and gardens for patients and visitors to enjoy. Most people don’t get joy out of a stark, sterile space.
5. Comfort and Joy
Creating beautiful, accessible, functional, safe interiors is very important in wellness-based design. But creating spaces that promote comfort and joy and a sense of emotional and mental well-being for clients is a true gift. It is often subjective and more challenging to measure. But when, at the end of the project, your client tells you that they love coming home or love working in their office space, you know the project is truly a success. When you check back with them, and they share the wonderful events that have happened in their new spaces and tell you what a sense of comfort and joy they feel, that makes all the work worth it!
Incorporating wellness-based design offers a holistic approach to design that promotes both mental and physical health, and as such, the well-being of your clients. In addition, incorporating wellness-based design as part of your unique selling proposition will help you to stand out from the competition and attract new clients who appreciate this focus.