What if the buildings and places around us could do more than shelter us, accommodate us or help us get from A to B? What if they could actively help us live, work, connect and flourish?

That was the question at the heart of Health, Wealth: Environments That Enrich, an evening or panelists and research presentation hosted by Waugh Thistleton Architects to launch and discuss their new wellbeing research.

Presented by Kirsten Haggart, Associate Director at Waugh Thistleton, the report explores the relationship between the built environment and human wellbeing – asking what we can learn from the spaces in which we spend our lives.

For me, one of the most interesting aspects of the evening was the way the conversation moved beyond the familiar language of “wellbeing features”. Rather than simply adding greenery, daylight or natural materials to a project, the speakers were considering something much bigger: how architecture can create the conditions for people to live better lives. And the research offers a useful way of thinking about this: five interconnected principles – variety, spatial quality, biophilia, agency and nudge.

Think of it as a “five a day” for the built environment. Designing for how we actually live