FROM PRODUCTS TO PURPOSE: HOW WELLNESS IS REDEFINING MATERIAL

As India's workplaces embrace the WELL Building Standard, design, materials, and corporate purpose are converging to create healthier, more human-centric environments.

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Across India's workspaces, mornings unfold in quiet harmony.

Natural light floods open floors, soft textures absorb sound, and the air feels perfectly balanced. The invisible systems that sustain this comfort have been finely tuned. These are not mere offices, they are living laboratories for human well-being, signalling a profound shift in how India designs for wellness.

The WELL Building Standard (WELL), a science-based framework measuring how buildings impact human health, is redefining success in commercial real estate. Sustainability once meant energy efficiency; today, it also takes on human sustainability – how well buildings nourish and empower their occupants.

The rise of wellness as a design imperative

The pandemic transformed how we perceive the spaces we occupy. Air quality, daylight, acoustics, and flexibility, once secondary, are now at the core of design. According to the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), that develops and administers the WELL Building Standard, India ranks among the fastest-growing markets for WELL, with over 895 assets enrolled and 140 projects pursuing WELL Certification. The focus on health and well-being has evolved from aspiration to expectation.

India's cultural context amplifies this shift. Indigenous philosophies like Ayurveda and Yoga have long emphasised balance between body, mind, and environment. WELL translates those ancient principles into measurable design outcomes, transforming intangible wellness into tangible architecture.

Listening before designing

For M Moser Associates, the WELL ethos begins with empathy. “We start every project by listening to occupant priorities,” says Reema Bhandari, Director. Surveys and environmental studies inform spatial planning long before drawings begin.