People spend, on average, 90% of their time in buildings which gives architects and engineers an opportunity to positively affect people’s health and wellbeing. Maslow defined wellbeing as a hierarchy of needs that includes physiological, psychological, social and personal needs. For built environment professionals, this implies an integrated, disciplinary approach that relates to attention to design, operations and occupant behaviour. This paper builds upon an earlier BCO report Making the business case for wellbeing which was published in July 2014.

To what extent do architects and engineers have a duty to ensure that building occupants are healthy and happy?