​

When I started down the path of design and architecture, I never realized there would be a way to tie my passion of health and nutrition into the design world. It’s funny how when you follow your passion externally to your profession, they somehow find a way to meet in the middle. 

 

What I began to notice after moving to NYC in the winter of 2011, was the way I suddenly spend A LOT more time indoors. Like, a lot. Hailing from sunny Australia where it was a faux par to have closed doors or windows when the sun was out (all the time), it took a bit of adjustment for me to spend so much time within the confines of four walls.

 

Did you know in the USA; we spend 90% of our time indoors?

 

I didn’t either, until I started paying attention to it.

​

So how does being indoors affect our mood?

As a child I was always super sensitive to my indoor environment, I get anxiety just thinking about being in a room without natural light and fresh air. I used to immediately fall asleep in department stores - with their recycled air, low ceilings and fluorescent lighting.

 

At that age I was ignorant to the fact that it was my environment that was affecting my mood, and only recently have I become acutely aware of how the design of our work and home spaces affects our health both mentally and physically.

 

 

Try paying attention next time you are in a dark, stuffy and dimly lit room.

 

Does it make you tired? Depressed? Anxious?

 

 

How can we design better spaces to live in?

I see it as my calling as an architect to help developers and private clients design better living and working spaces for all end users. While the architecture profession for a long time has been concerned with environmental sustainability – that is, how the building affects the environment, no one has been consciously aware of the human sustainability factor by asking this simple question;

 

 

How will the design of the indoor space affect the health, wellness and physical and mental health of the user?

 

​

Going beyond design

The WELL Building Standard is a new standard of design and construction primarily concerned with how our indoor environments affect the user. While LEED is concerned with the impact the building has with its external environment, WELL is focused on the internal (you) user.

 

Being one of the very few worldwide certified WELL Accredited Professionals, I consult with clients and project teams looking to gain WELL Certification for their projects, and truly believe that this is the future of green design.

 

Also, as a Certified Health Coach from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN), my passion for health and wellness goes beyond design and sits as an overarching philosophy for living. I see the integration of nutrition, exercise, spirituality, interior environment, relationships and career (among many other things) as elements to help us design a better lifestyle for all humans.

 

There are small, simple practice models that can help anyone make changes to their living environment which will have a flow on affect to their overall health. Each client is an individual with different and unique requirements and a full evaluation of each client’s living, working and lifestyle choices is the best way to gauge best practice techniques to help improve the overall lifestyle of that individual.