The impact of closed spaces on the health of their users and how proper design can positively influence your well-being have starred in the second meeting organized by the company from Alicante Active in the framework of Madrid Design Festival.
The coronavirusas explained Anne-Marie AguilarDirector of Operations of the International Well Building Institute“has taught us how the spaces where we live and work have a direct influence on our health”. Not in vain in the Institute they study the multiple meanings that today has the Health and its relationship with aspects such as safety, diversity, equality, inclusion, climate change, public health, mental health, resilience, productivity or the commitment of workers to the company.
In this sense, he acknowledged that “through Well I discovered how spaces can improve health and I began to design houses and environments that carehelping organizations and people achieve their goals through well-being”.
“We are seeing how living in grayer and less green spaces is making us sick”, according to the architect Anne-Marie Aguilar, for whom “a space that ‘takes care of you’ has to attend to the three dimensions: physiological, cognitive and socio-emotional ”
On how a healthy space is synchronized with the physiological needs of the people who occupy italbeit temporarily like in a hotel, has also spoken Jane Fernandezemphasizing that “priority must be given to night rest, but also to how do we prepare for the night, for which it is essential that the space contributes to well-being and does not pose a continuous threat”. At this point he has detailed how it is possible to create new habits and routines from his method of seven D of rest: decision, discipline, diet and sport, sleep, slow down, disconnect and enjoy.
The participants in the meeting organized by Actiu within the Madrid Design Festival. Photo: Eva Casado Studio.
“It is important that when we talk about what we do, we do it from health and wellnessbut also from the profit opportunity”, he pointed out Paul Munozwhich as CEO of Evalore defend how people, planet and profitability are three concepts that must go hand in hand to contribute to a sustainable development that can last over time. “Have tools to create healthy spaces that we should use and that, properly implemented, increase the profitability of the investor and the user”, added the architect, underlining the risk of not doing so and creating buildings that are already born obsolete.
In a hybrid and flexible moment like the current one, space can become an important loyalty tool. For Bieito Silvaresponsible for the Well certification of the Technological Institute of Galicia, “there are a lot of costs derived from an inadequate space and, what a priori may imply a higher initial cost, in the medium term has a significant return”. And it is that, as you have indicated, “beyond salary, flexibility and adaptability of uses are aspects highly valued by people”.
The role of technology
Solitude Berbegaladviser and director of Brand Reputation at Activehas also referred to the technologyunderstood as a tool that helps take care of these spaces and their inhabitants. In his opinion, it is a fundamental part of this transformation, both to measure parameters such as air quality, acoustics, lighting, personal activity or food, and to interpret them.
The company has launched Gaia by Actiu“a platform of internet of things that measures parameters and where the important thing is not the sensor, but data and decisions are made with them, as well as knowing how to communicate them”. A communication which, according to the director of Actiu, “is a fundamental tool when it comes to achieve that well-being and awareness among those who make use of these spaces”.