Arup has teamed up with US specialist Delos to launch a new tool for tracking a building design’s impact on people’s health and wellbeing.
Arup’s Building Performance & Systems (BPS) team has worked with Delos to create the new BUS Wellbeing survey. The new tool combines the pre-existing standard BUS Methodology Occupant Satisfaction Survey – which Arup acquired in 2009 – and the Delos Building Wellness Survey. It is designed to provide a more comprehensive analysis of building design impact on the wellness of occupants than ever before, criteria such as air quality, lighting and access to nature.
The aim is to provide a simple way to track how investment in building design and performance is related to human health.
Without global benchmarks, these investments cannot be evaluated and compared, said Dr Whitney Austin Gray, senior vice president at Delos.
The survey has already been tried out by US healthcare provider Adventist Health on its Consolidated Campus Transition Project in order to test the latest features with the aim of achieving Well Certification under the WELL Building Standard.
Arup said that the standard BUS Methodology Occupant Satisfaction Survey focuses on occupants’ experience of a building such as thermal comfort, air quality, lighting personal control, while the Delos Building Wellness Survey assess their wellbeing in terms of access to nature, nutrition, physical activity and mental health. “By combining the two, the new survey offers clients a more comprehensive analysis of how a buildings’s design impacts its staff and business”, said Darren Wright, director, building performance and systems.