WELL Building Standard: build environment, human health and well-being - Cariboni Group
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07 November 2019

WELL Building Standard: build environment, human health and well-being

WELL certification is the first building standard focused on human health and well-being. And it also includes light.

WELL certification, promoted by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), is the first building standard focused on human health and well-being. Considering that on average a person spends more than 90% of his time indoors, it’s clear how fundamental is the spread of this approach.

A building's compliance with WELL standard is based on more than one hundred performance requirements grouped into seven broad categories:

  • Air: improve the quality of indoor air by ensuring spare parts and using anti-particulate filters;
  • Water: facilitating access to high quality water obtained with adequate filtration techniques and regularly checked;
  • Nutrition: limiting the presence of highly processed foods and encouraging a better food culture;
  • Lighting: promoting lighting systems designed to increase visual performance, guarantee visual comfort and produce psychological and neurological benefits;
  • Movement: supporting an active lifestyle and discouraging a sedentary behaviour;
  • Comfort: creating comfortable interiors from a thermal, acoustic, ergonomic and olfactory point of view;
  • Mind: optimizing cognitive and emotional health.

WELL standard is designed to integrate with energy efficiency and environmental sustainability certifications of buildings such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). It’s in fact certified by the Green Business Certification Incorporation (GBCI), which also manages the LEED certification program.

The release of these certifications for a building records a 7% to 11% increase in the value of the building itself on the real estate market compared to buildings that don’t have them, as shown by a survey carried out by Rebuild with CBRE and GBCI Europe.

WELL: lighting requirements

Lighting requirements are primarily aimed at improving the quality of vision and not interrupting the body's circadian cycle, to optimize daytime productivity and nighttime sleep quality. In order to meet WELL requirements, lighting designers must consider adequate light levels for the activities that are carried out in the illuminated space during day and night, guarantee the quality of colour rendering and limit glare.

Additional optimization points include lighting criteria supporting human circadian rhythm, contrast balancing, limiting the light intensity of the sources, management of sunlight, possibility for the user to adjust the light, gradual transitions of light intensity over time to facilitate visual adaptation, flicker management, colour quality and light diffusion internal coverings.

The implementation of intelligent lighting systems can be fundamental to conform to the standard.

Below is a brief description of the thirteen requirements for lighting that conforms to the WELL standard:

  • FEATURE 53 - VISUAL LIGHTING DESIGN: it provides lighting requirements for basic visual performance.
  • FEATURE 54 - CIRCADIAN LIGHTING DESIGN: it promotes bright environments that minimize the interruption of the human circadian system, using an alternative unit of measurement to the traditional Lux: Equivalent Melanopic Lux (EML).
  • FEATURE 55 - ELECTRIC LIGHT GLARE CONTROL: it establishes the criteria to reduce direct and environmental dazzling to a minimum (both discomfort glare and disability glare), limiting the luminous intensity of the luminaires and imposing shield angles for luminaires that exceed certain luminances.
  • FEATURE 56/60/61/62/63 - SOLAR GLARE CONTROL / AUTOMATED SHADING AND DIMMING CONTROLS / RIGHT TO LIGHT / DAYLIGHT MODELING / DAYLIGHTING FENESTRATION: these features concern solar shading and adequate levels of natural light inside buildings. Requirements include controlled shading and glass with variable transmission properties, intelligent lighting control systems, minimum distances from normally occupied spaces at windows, maximum annual exposure to sunlight and design parameters for windows to optimize daylight but avoid excessive glare or heat.
  • FEATURE 57 - LOW-GLARE WORKSTATION DESIGN: it provides advice on where situate computer monitors in order to avoid glare and luminance contrast that create visual discomfort.
  • FEATURE 58 - COLOUR QUALITY: it requires lighting with a general colour rendering index of at least 80 and also recommends a minimum specific colour rendering for red (element R9) of at least 50.
  • FEATURE 59 - SURFACE DESIGN: it establishes the minimum reflectance values ​​of the materials of the internal surfaces to increase the overall brightness of an environment avoiding glare.
  • FEATURE P2 - LIGHT AT NIGHT: it provides indications for night lighting of the rooms, both to avoid light intrusions into the rooms during sleep hours and for orientation lighting.
  • FEATURE P3 - CIRCADIAN EMULATION: it provides indications for lighting that reproduces intensity and spectral distributions similar to those of light at different times of the day.

More information on WELL standard are available at the webpage dedicated to lighting.

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