Our homes and offices are more than just four walls and a roof, and the structures that we live and work in can have a significant impact on our mental and physical health.
To investigate how the structures we live in affect us, The Well Living Lab has launched an extensive, three-year scientific research plan to identify how indoor environments (including homes, workplaces and independent living communities) affect five significant facets of people’s lives: health, performance, stress and resiliency, sleep and comfort.
The research will look specifically at the interplay of elements such as sound, lighting, temperature and air quality, and how those features combine to create positive, neutral and negative effects on people. The study will aim to answer specific questions about our relationship with the built environment, such as how office workers respond to artificial lighting both while in and after leaving the office, and how changes in environmental conditions affect sleep and stress at home.
“We want to understand the effect of environmental conditions and combinations of conditions to improve health and well-being, including performance, comfort, stress and resilience and sleep,” says Brent Bauer, M.D., medical director of the Well Living Lab and director of medicine for Mayo Clinic’s Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program.
The research is a continuation of previous studies by the lab, which looked at how temperature, noise and lighting in open office environments affect employees’ ability to get work done. The study found employees are most sensitive to thermal conditions, followed by work-related noise such as conversations and lack of natural light from windows when working in open office environments. Beyond impacting work satisfaction, the study showed these factors carried over into the mood of employees and their sleep while at home.
“We know that passive design elements in our homes, offices and buildings can contribute to our health and well-being,” says Peter Scialla, COO of Delos and co-chair of the Well Living Lab’s Joint Steering Committee. “This research will further advance change for the building industry and result in innovative design, products, materials and technologies.”
