Jiannan Luo: As a WELL AP, every space tells a story

Becoming a WELL AP can make you see the world in an entirely different way. Suddenly, every space tells a story—and like any story, these spaces unveil their creators’ perspectives and priorities. How can our spaces tell a story of people-centric design, focused on human health and well-being?

Jiannan Luo joined Foster + Partners nearly a decade ago to help tell those kinds of stories via sustainable design. To help deepen his understanding and grow his practice, Jiannan studied WELL and joined the movement as a WELL AP. Here, he discusses how and why.

1. How did you first hear about the WELL AP? What got you excited enough about it to apply, study and take the test?

I heard about the WELL AP from one of my colleagues, back when WELL was first introduced to the market. It quickly became one of the most comprehensive and industry-wide recognized standards to assess the health and well-being of the buildings we design and live in. At Foster + Partners, we have more than 50 years’ experience in designing sustainable and healthy buildings. Having a third-party standard to validate the importance and execution of these features for our clients was crucial to us. That was what drove me to apply and finally become a WELL AP in 2017.

2. What’s one way becoming a WELL AP has impacted your life and/or career?

Studying WELL opened a whole new world in front of me, which also positively impacted my life and career. Through the WELL AP exam preparation process, I learnt how important keeping a healthy environment and lifestyle is. It encouraged me to pay more attention to the air quality around me, the amount of water I drink each day and even how I work and eat, helping me improve diet balance through different food choices, and getting me to finally put a standing desk in my home office. These concepts also affect our day-to-day job–we keep trying to integrate those healthy design concepts with our projects. We have always used science-based criteria (such as WELL) to assess design outcomes during this process, but my becoming a WELL AP enhanced our team’s ability to carry out more human-centric design assessments in various challenging climates.

3. What are some things you’ve been able to do (or you plan to do) as a WELL AP you couldn’t before? Why are those things important to you?

After becoming a WELL AP, I have built more confidence to use WELL as a benchmark to assess my projects, engage with clients and different consultants actively, and contribute positively to the multi-discipline design charrette. A deep understanding of each WELL credit, especially those directly related to architectural or engineering design, is crucial to our daily design exercises. To truly succeed, you have to understand systematically how each credit works and its combined effects. Also, sometimes they have a synergetic effect on other rating systems, such as LEED. Becoming a WELL AP gives me greater and more detailed insights into these synergies. My becoming a WELL AP also contributed to our going forward with an in-house research paper evaluating the impact of the WELL Building Standard on office buildings’ energy consumption, which was published this year at the ASHRAE IAQ2020 conference in Athens, Greece.

4. Did anything about the WELL AP surprise you? What was it? How would you prepare WELL AP candidates for that?

The most impressive thing that IWBI achieved by publishing different WELL versions was the sheer amount of science-based matrix and research going behind each credit to support the credit intent. I’ve had the privilege to be a WELL global advisor since 2018. During the advisory meetings, I enjoy sharing thoughts and the scientific research process with people from different industries and parts of the world. Through these highly-engaged sessions, I can see that the concept intent is developed better and better on the execution end. With that in mind, I’d advise future WELL AP candidates to digest the credit intent and research behind each credit to be fully aware of the scientific references behind the criteria. Understand the thought process behind to inform future design better.

5. What’s something about the WELL AP–or the WELL movement in general–that isn’t often discussed, but you think deserves more attention?

As a well-being-focused standard, WELL naturally pays significant attention to the health and well-being aspects of design–however, its synergy and connection with the broader carbon-neutral roadmap are equally important. WELL is designed to have multiple crosswalks and alignments to other green building standards, which is excellent. I hope in the future, more science and data-based carbon-synergetic concepts and credits can be introduced to the WELL Standard. The recent addition of feature I06 β Carbon Disclosure and Reduction is a good starting point, setting up some high-level aspirations for the projects to reduce whole-life carbon. However, if certain credits related to air, thermal comfort, materials can also have meaningful impact on industry’s carbon perspective, that would simultaneously improve the project’s health, well-being and environmental performance.

6. Do you have any advice you’d give potential WELL AP candidates?

I would say the critical advice is to be confident about the route you’re taking–both to believe in the importance of people-first places and to believe that you can make a positive impact. Only with firm belief and commitment can you confidently adopt the concepts within WELL and successfully apply them to real-world projects. Also, don’t take any existing criteria for granted. The R&D work is always happening and improving, and the design standards will also need to keep this pace. We can always keep reviewing and improving the benchmarking requirements with input from the industry and universities.

7. What does well-being mean to you? How do you incorporate it into your life and routine?

Well-being is becoming increasingly important not only to myself but to almost everyone around me, especially in light of the pandemic. We were forced to have less travel (to work and the outside world) in this strange period and fewer social meetings with friends and colleagues. Now, with the rise of remote work, it’s even more essential and more challenging to find a healthy lifestyle and work-life balance. I’ve paid more attention to my home environment, upgrading my fan filter, introducing standing desks and so on. I’m hoping to spend more spare time with my wife on gardening to improve the biophilia around us. These environmental factors will all have a positive impact on my daily life.

8. Is there a specific WELL concept, feature or set of features that have really resonated with you and that you’ve incorporated into your own life?

As I mentioned before, I pay significant attention to the air quality at my home–which is now also my office–by regularly cleaning and replacing the MVHR filters and having a separate localized purifier in my study. I also tried to set some daily drinking water targets per WELL guidance and attend our office’s running club in my spare time. Also, as an environmental engineer, I naturally ventilate my flat when the external temperature allows, further enhancing the air quality within the space.

9. How do you think COVID-19 has impacted your WELL AP practice and approach? How do you think that will change going forward?

COVID-19 is a unique experience for all of us. We have learned so much from it, and it will have a continuous impact on our daily lives and the projects we design. After the pandemic, focus across the board on health and well-being and the related benchmarking system has increased exponentially. That increased consideration for human health and well-being in the built environment helps us work more effectively with clients who already see the value in what we do. Today’s clients are very interested in human-centric design approaches, such as natural ventilation (or mixed-mode ventilation), upgrading the minimum efficiency reporting values (MERV) filtration level for the air handling unit (AHU), having intelligent building management systems (BMS) control to enable demand-based ventilation, or even pioneer water-based, primary air-driven HVAC systems (such as Chilled Beams or Chilled Ceiling) in more challenging climates. A lot of these strategies have tangible health benefits, as well as energy and sustainability benefits. Now is a particularly fantastic time to have a truly multidisciplinary approach, like we have with our integrated engineering design team within Foster + Partners. COVID will have long-term impacts on our society, especially on the spaces we share. We will always keep learning, improving design as much as we can, and striving to build a healthier, more resilient future.