Multifamily Health & Wellbeing Study

Applied research suggests link between healthy building design and resident wellbeing

The Client: NAVA Real Estate Development (NAVA)

The Challenge: When NAVA developed the Lakehouse community in Denver, its vision was to create “a new era of living well.” NAVA pursued WELL certification for the building, which includes 200 for-sale condominium and rowhome residences, and was the first residential project in Colorado to achieve Gold level certification. But the developer wanted more than certification – they wanted to know that they were helping Lakehouse residents live healthier, happier lives. The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), which administers WELL, connected NAVA with IBE to provide applied research services.

Our Approach: Working closely with the developer to understand their goals, IBE designed a robust study to measure the impact of Lakehouse’s sustainable design and wellness programming on residents’ health and wellbeing. Hearing NAVA’s particular interest in resident happiness, IBE convinced the developer to lean into gathering social metrics, which ultimately offered some of the most compelling study outcomes. In 2019, IBE began a three-year research study that included pre- and post-occupancy surveys and one-on-one interviews.

The Outcomes: Research findings have relevance well beyond Lakehouse — to other developers and other multifamily developments. Study data supported the hypotheses that residents’ satisfaction, health, wellbeing, and happiness would be significantly better after moving into Lakehouse than in prior residences. Despite being conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study identified that nearly 45% of measured variables significantly changed in a positive way (and less than 4% in a negative way). Most notably, residents reported improvements in social-emotional and physical health compared to when living in previous residences. Read IBE’s research case study and IWBI’s companion WELL case study.