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Setting the Stage: What is Health and Wellness?

Updated: Sep 27, 2022

This week we started out by trying to get a more complete understanding of the terms Health and Wellness. To do this we looked at how different institutions define and use these terms. We then expanded on these to understand how these terms are used from a design standpoint. My main take away from this was that a person's health is characterized by the interaction of their different states of well-being and the impact the physical environment has on these states and the person as a whole. The built environment plays a crucial role in individual and community wellness because it influences so many aspects of people's wellness. The impact of the built environment is included in most, if not all, definitions of health from the different models we looked at. Most of these definitions came from public health groups or institutions, not design based institutions, so I found it interesting how many included the impact of the built environment. These definitions are broken down into categories that make up a person's overall health and most of them include similar categories of well-being. These include:

  • Physical

    • activity levels

    • restful sleep

    • diet

    • tobacco use

    • alcohol and drug use

    • air and water quality

    • housing

    • transit

  • Mental/Psychological

    • selfcare

    • power of mind

    • rest and recharge

  • Social

    • healthy friendships

    • support groups

    • community connections

  • Economic/Financial

    • establish good financial habits

    • plan for future

    • education

    • employment

    • income

  • Emotional

    • listen to your feelings

    • being able to express them

  • Spiritual

    • connect to nature, self, and others to create balance

  • Occupational

    • life satisfaction

    • engaging activities at work, school, and/or volunteering

  • Intellectual

    • continue learning and expanding your knowledge

    • stimulate curiosity

  • Environmental

    • safety

    • access to care

    • quality of care

All these different categories of well-being come from the definition of Health as described by health practices, but almost all of them have some connection to design practices. It is easy to get caught up in the design world when you are in it, and it often feels like a bubble separated from the rest of the fields. However, this could not be further from the truth. You can’t talk about individual or community wellness without talking about the built environment. They are irrevocably connected because of how much humans are impacted by their surroundings. So, the key to improving the state of health and wellness for many people is putting more effort towards creating spaces that have positive impacts on people and encourage healthy behavior to prevent the development of health problems. All the different aspects of the built environment, including air, water, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, community, etc., impact these different categories of well-being.


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