by Brianna Crandall — April 27, 2016 — In a move demonstrating the growing awareness of the important role that the design and operation of buildings play in improving public health and wellness, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) recently announced a partnership to advance the AIA’s Design and Health initiative.
As the first corporate supporter of the initiative, IWBI will bring leading-edge health and design information, research, and professional education opportunities to AIA members to enable their stewardship of health and wellness-focused design and architecture. Through WELL Workshops hosted around the country, AIA will provide educational opportunities to support its membership in becoming WELL Accredited Professionals (WELL APs).
The partnership will generate shared research, co-developed informational articles, and direct support for AIA’s recently established Design and Health Research Consortium. AIA and IWBI will co-develop a publication detailing the ways in which architects can improve health and well-being through design, which AIA will share with all 87,000 members. As part of the partnership, AIA will also engage its full membership in regionally available WELL Workshops, Webinars and other online educational opportunities.
AIA and IWBI will also collaborate on a special event to be held at the 2016 AIA National Convention in Philadelphia aimed to inspire attendees with the latest research on design and health issues and honor practitioners dedicated to designing places that inspire health and well-being.
As part of the collaboration, IWBI will support the education of a WELL / AIA Summer Scholar to help develop a new architecture professional in the marketplace focused on design, health and well-being. Additionally, IWBI supported the annual Design and Health Research Consortium that took place recently in Washington, DC.
Paul Scialla, founder and chief executive officer of IWBI, expressed the group’s excitement at working with AIA and pointed out, “Architects play a pivotal role in designing for health and wellness — from site orientation and architectural design to material specification and beyond.”
AIA began investigating the possible impact of design on human health and well-being at its 2003 Annual Convention, which explored the impact of design on neuroscience. In 2013, AIA brought together the multi-disciplinary Design and Health Leadership Group to guide its strategies in this area.
In 2014, AIA partnered with the AIA Foundation and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture to form the Design and Health Research Consortium, a group of leading academic public health institutions and universities that helps translate research on design’s influence on public health into architectural practice for policymakers, design and public health professionals and the general public.
Pioneered by Delos, the WELL Building Standard is considered the first building standard to focus exclusively on the health and wellness of the people in buildings. WELL is an evidence- and performance-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring features that impact human health and well-being in the built environment, through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind.
WELL is administered by IWBI and third-party certified by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), which also certifies the LEED green building program. To date, the program has enrolled nearly 30 million square feet of building projects in 13 countries.
