Designing for Wellness: How Residential Architecture Can Improve Your Well-Being

Improve your well-being

Our Homes Play a Role in Our Family’s Wellness

In today’s fast-paced world, our homes are more than just places to live—they are sanctuaries for inspiration, rest, healing, restoration, and well-being. At Mark Eric Benner Architects, we believe that thoughtful architectural design has the power to impact your physical and mental health profoundly. Architecture is pivotal in enhancing your daily life, whether it’s the strategic use of natural light, biophilic elements that bring the outdoors in, or sustainably sourced materials.

Here, we’ll explore how innovative architectural design can improve well-being. Drawing inspiration from the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ll address common health challenges like allergies, seasonal stresses, and mental wellness.

1. Natural Light: A Boost for Physical and Mental Health

One of the most impactful ways architecture can improve well-being is by optimizing natural light. Studies show that exposure to sunlight enhances mood, increases productivity, and helps regulate sleep patterns. In a post-pandemic world where many spend more time at home, bathing your living space in natural light can significantly affect your overall health.

At MEBA, we design homes that maximize natural light by incorporating large windows, skylights, and open layouts that allow light to flow freely throughout the space. We also consider the positioning of windows to align with the sun’s path, ensuring that crucial living areas receive optimal light throughout the day. Lighting design can be so much more than four cans and a fan.

Wellness Tip: Incorporate sunrooms, open kitchens, or living areas with large glass doors to connect indoor and outdoor environments, filling your home with light and reducing reliance on artificial lighting.

2. Ventilation and Air Quality: The Breath of Life

Proper ventilation and air circulation are critical for maintaining good health, particularly regarding allergies, respiratory issues, and illnesses like COVID-19. Inadequate air quality can exacerbate conditions like asthma or allergies, and poor ventilation can lead to indoor pollutants, mold, and dust accumulation.

Architectural solutions like cross-ventilation, energy-efficient HVAC systems, and well-placed windows help improve indoor air quality. At MEBA, we focus on designing spaces with natural airflow patterns that promote constant air exchange, reducing stagnant air and improving overall health.

Wellness Tip: Consider adding air purification systems and green walls—vertical gardens that naturally filter and clean indoor air. These systems can combat pollutants while adding a calming, nature-inspired element to your home.

3. Biophilic Design: Bringing Nature Indoors

Biophilic design is a concept in architecture and interior design that seeks to integrate natural elements into built environments to improve the well-being and health of occupants. The idea is that humans have an innate connection to nature, and by bringing aspects of the natural world indoors, we can create spaces that reduce stress, enhance creativity, improve productivity, and promote healing. The core principle incorporates stimulation for all senses.

Fundamental biophilic design principles include:

  1. Natural Light: Maximizing natural sunlight in interior spaces through large windows, skylights, or glass doors can enhance mood, regulate circadian rhythms, and reduce the need for artificial lighting.
  2. Views of Nature: Providing unobstructed views of outdoor landscapes, greenery, or water features fosters a calming connection with the natural environment. These views create a sense of tranquility and can even improve cognitive function.
  3. Natural Materials: Organic materials like wood, stone, and water enhance architectural finishes, furniture, and decor. These materials provide tactile and visual connections to nature, bringing a sense of warmth and authenticity to the space.
  4. Indoor Plants and Greenery: Incorporating plants, living walls, or vertical gardens into interior spaces improves air quality, reduces stress, and enhances overall well-being. Greenery also provides a refreshing aesthetic and connection to living ecosystems.
  5. Water Features: Add fountains, small indoor ponds, or water walls, which can introduce soothing sounds and visual movement and create a more peaceful and refreshing atmosphere.
  6. Natural Patterns and Textures: Design elements that mimic nature’s forms, patterns, and textures, such as leaf-like motifs, organic shapes, or textured surfaces that resemble natural landscapes, engage the senses and evoke feelings of calm.
  7. Fresh Air and Ventilation: Ensuring ample ventilation and airflow, ideally through operable windows or passive ventilation systems, to improve air quality and provide a connection to the outdoors.
  8. Biomimicry: Incorporating shapes and structures inspired by nature’s processes and systems. Biomimicry reveals designs that mimic the efficient forms of plants, animals, or ecosystems.

Biophilic design fosters a more harmonious relationship between people and their spaces, promoting well-being, sustainability, and a more profound connection with nature by weaving these principles into architectural and interior design.

Without adopting a biophilic design, one receives only 20% of the potential benefits, the visual experience. Opportunities to stimulate the senses of smell, hearing, taste, and touch remain untapped.

Perhaps you’ve visited a hotel with a “signature” scent. Our trip to France and visiting the lavender fields created a strong olfactory memory. This memory triggers a fond memory to this day.

Does your family have a favorite trip or event with a scent reference? How about a lavender garden with a space featuring venting windows to re-live that memory regularly?

At MEBA, we use materials like wood, stone, and water features to create a sense of calm and connection to nature. Large windows with views of greenery, indoor plants, and natural color palettes contribute to a biophilic home environment that enhances mental health.

Wellness Tip: Add greenery through indoor plants or living walls, and consider using natural materials like reclaimed wood or stone for crucial design elements, such as flooring or accent walls.

4. Sustainable Materials: Reducing Environmental Toxins

The materials used in your home’s construction can significantly impact your health. Many conventional building materials contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that off-gas harmful chemicals into the air. Over time, exposure to these toxins can contribute to various health issues, including respiratory problems, skin irritations, and long-term illnesses.

Using sustainable, non-toxic materials—such as low-VOC paints, natural wood, and recycled materials—can dramatically reduce exposure to harmful substances. At MEBA, we prioritize using sustainable and eco-friendly materials that promote a healthy living environment.

Wellness Tip: Choose finishes and furnishings free from formaldehyde and VOCs. Opt for natural fabrics, organic fibers, and eco-friendly construction materials whenever possible.

Read more about biophilic design

5. Seasonal Design Considerations: Creating Spaces for Every Season

Seasonal changes can affect our mood, energy levels, and overall well-being. Designing your home to accommodate these shifts can help you stay comfortable and maintain a positive mental outlook year-round.

For instance, during the colder, darker months, many people experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Designing for maximum light exposure, incorporating cozy spaces with warm materials, and creating inviting outdoor spaces for fresh air—even in winter—can combat these seasonal challenges. In warmer months, shaded outdoor areas, heat-resistant materials, and effective cooling systems can keep your home comfortable.

Wellness Tip: Create adaptable indoor/outdoor spaces for all seasons. Add features like retractable screens, heated patios, or sunrooms with movable walls to bring in fresh air and natural light, no matter the season.

6. Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Designing for Health and Safety

Washing hands for hygiene

Corona virus

The global pandemic has forever changed how we view our homes. With more people working from home and prioritizing health and safety, architectural design has evolved to meet these new needs. Designing with separate workspaces, easy-to-clean materials, and touchless technologies helps reduce the spread of germs.

At MEBA, we embrace design challenges, incorporating features like home offices, mudrooms with sanitation stations, and antimicrobial or easy-to-disinfect materials. These elements promote a cleaner, healthier home environment.

Wellness Tip: To promote physical and mental well-being, consider dedicating a space in your home to health and wellness, such as a home gym, meditation area, or spa-like bathroom.

Conclusion: Designing Homes for Health and Happiness

At Mark Eric Benner Architects, we believe that designing for wellness goes beyond aesthetics—it’s about creating spaces that improve one’s quality of life. We design homes that enhance physical and mental well-being by incorporating natural light, clean air, biophilic elements, and sustainable materials.

Allow us to join your team and guide them in designing a home that promotes wellness. Let’s work together to create a beautiful sanctuary that supports your health and happiness.


Is It Time for You to Prepare for a Residential Architecture Project?

Contact us today to start designing your wellness-focused home! Discover more residential architecture design ideas by following us. Our LinkTr.ee page is home to all of our platforms, linktr.ee/MarkBenner.

Mark Eric Benner – Architects has served and provides bespoke, value-focussed architectural and interior design services in the following communities:
Illinois: Arlington Heights, Bannockburn, Bull Valley, Burr Ridge, Chicago, Crystal Lake, Deerfield, Downers Grove, Evanston, Geneva, Glencoe, Glenview, Glen Ellyn, Fox Lake, Highland Park, Kenilworth, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Lemont, Libertyville, Morris, Northbrook, Northfield, Park Ridge, Ravinia, Round Lake, Skokie, Waukegan, Wilmette, Winnetka, and Woodstock

Wisconsin: Burlington, Door County, Ephraim, Fish Creek, Kenosha, Lake Geneva, Sister Bay, Twin Lakes, Walworth, Williams Bay;
as well as communities throughout Colorado.

Affordable Housing

Our non-profit projects have served:
Chicago, IL; North Chicago, IL; Bogalusa, LA; Franklinton, LA; Slidell, LA; Tupelo, MS; Johnson City, TN; White Sulphur Springs, WV.
Partners in disaster recovery and affordable housing:
Solid Rock Carpentersboard member (www.SolidRockCarpenters.org)
Appalachian Service Project (www.ASPHome.org)
Habitat for Humanity (www.Habitat.org)
Matthew Homes (https://www.renewcommunities.org/matthewhome)
The Home Depot Foundation (https://corporate.homedepot.com/page/home-depot-foundation)
We invite you to learn more about, and support these generous and caring organizations who support communities in need.

Contact us today to start planning your dream home project.


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