design for mental wellbeing - university of chicago student wellness centre
university of chicago student wellness centre - exterior
Summary of topics covered:
Sustainable furniture: LifeCycle Analysis / Healthy Materials / low-VOCs
Lighting : Natural light / Window walls and corridors / Soft warm light - relaxation / Blue-white light productivity
Biophilic Design: Stone from a gothic hospital / Birch tree windows / Biophilia - boost mental health
Mental health: wellness design / wellbeing interiors
Sustainable interiors and biophilic design for mental health
With an aim to boost student’s campus life, the University of Chicago recently built their first all encompassing Student Wellness Center. In the past, each department of the center was housed within different locations on campus.
The new building, finished in 2020, brought together their Student Health Service, Student Counseling Service, and Health Promotion and Wellness group into a single building.
Not only does the Student Wellness Center act as a building for health services, it is also a tranquil, restorative space for students to relax and work on their studies. The interior design choices made as part of that process reveal a lot about wellness design today, so read on to find out more.
Biophilic design and sustainable interiors for student wellness
The Student Wellness Center was adorned with sustainable interior furniture to provide nookes of solidarity to encourage collaboration. The quality of healthy furniture was a high priority of the biophilic interior design project. All pieces were ensured to be clean air certified, minimizing the risk of Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs being emitted from furniture that would end up polluting the indoor air.
These harmful chemicals (don’t be fooled by the friendly ‘organic’ in their name!) have been proven to decrease cognitive functioning, among a slew of other health effects - see here for more on the health risks of VOCs.
By procuring such healthy and sustainable furniture, the interior designers contributed to the cognitive performance and indeed physical health of students and faculty, while minimizing their environmental impact. It’s a win-win!
sustainable furniture for wellbeing
Furniture was procured from a range of green, sustainable designers that track the lifecycle impact of their products from manufacturing and procurement, to distribution and sale, even into end of life to recycling.
A number of furniture products by Muuto are made with eighty percent recycled material and Allermuir has their very own 15,000 square foot recycling center. This sustainable interior design not only helps people, but helps the planet too, it combines the concepts of wellbeing interiors with sustainability - increasingly, these go hand in hand.
wellness lighting strategies
The natural and artificial light strategies of the Student Wellness Center are a key element of its wellness design. Many of the internal corridors of the building are softly-lit providing tranquil spaces of relaxation with warm, yellow light.
Areas designed for productivity are illuminated in full by blu-white spectrum light giving students and faculty greater wakefulness during the day. This boosts focus and productivity.
Long halls of natural light are incorporated within many of the outskirts of the structure, these halls surround you with nature giving the building's occupants consistent exposure to full natural light during the daytime.
wellness architecture
The base structure of the Student Wellness Center is a historic, gothic hospital. The new structure engages with the old building’s architecture bringing the natural elements of stone walls and arches within the walls of the center. The incorporation of the history of the building also brings nature's elements inside contributing to its biophilic design.
The arches create large organic shapes giving the building biophilic design in structure. The glass interior and exterior walls are common-place around the Student Wellness Center allowing for a greater visual perception of space and natural light.
Some of these walls are accented with birch tree forest graphics to create visual privacy while still pulling light further through the building. This design grounds the space back to its natural elements. Additionally, plants are placed throughout the building to provide green spaces and boost mental health via biophilia.
Biophilic design for student wellbeing
With a focus on biophilic design, the University of Chicago sought to give students a calm and relaxing space to boost student wellness and productivity. From the placement of windows to the furnishings inside, the building was founded with the importance of student health and wellness in mind. Through biophilic design, students at the University of Chicago are given healthy, restorative spaces where they can flourish.