The Well Living Lab, a scientific research center, will launch a three-year study to determine how indoor environments impact people’s lives.
The study will focus on how indoor environments affect: health, performance, stress and resiliency, sleep, and comfort. Researchers will examine these factors for homes, workplaces, and independent living communities.
Of particular interest will be the interplay of elements such as sound, lighting, temperature, and air quality. These elements can be altered in various combinations to uncover positive, neutral, and negative effects on occupants.
This study follows a smaller-scale project that found employees are most sensitive to thermal conditions, followed by work-related noise such as conversations, and lack of natural light from windows when working in open office environments. These factors affected work environment satisfaction, productivity, the mood of employees, and their sleep patterns.