DESIGNING FOR WELLNESS
Americans now spend 90% of their time indoors according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Institute of Health says children are at risk of becoming nature-deficient. If we are not designing buildings more consciously with these facts in mind, we are missing enormous opportunities to create healthier, more attractive and biodiverse places where people naturally want to be.
Contact with living and representational nature is now widely documented to be an effective design strategy for decreasing people’s levels of depression and anxiety and increasing their capacity to recover from all types of stress. This is a big reason why wellness design has been named a top trend of 2023 by the American Society of Interior Designers and my book, Designing For Wellness, won 5 global book awards in 2020.
Whether I design a site-specific biophilic art installation or lay my creative thinking over an entire project, my design consulting strategies are based on an integrated, evidence-based approach, in which "nature as culture" is artistically and mindfully-baked into the sensory experience of the built environment.
I look forward to discussing how I can support your next project.
Wellness design, expertise, artistry, and media value.
Executives want assurances their construction projects will actually yield the wellness benefits they seek for their people. As a WELL AP and WELL Faculty member, I leverage my relationship with nature, my extra sensory mind, and my deep understanding of community culture to help development teams build places people naturally want to be. When placed upstream, early on in a project, I provide competitive advantages to my clients, as I interact with planning teams to develop distintinctive design features, programs and policies that support well-being for all. I've served in an advisory capacity for small and large design teams of up 25 architects, interior designers, engineers and developers.
Nature-based features that calm and engage the mind.
Places that encourage people to connect with elements of nature understand how biophilic relationships provide legitimate health benefits to everyone, regardless of one’s physical or neurological differences. But it takes extra sensory awareness to plan biophilic features that are appealing to both hypersensitves (who dislike settings with excessive stimuli) and hyposensitives (who need more sensory stimuli to fully process information). My services support all sensory types.
- biophilic art installations- immersive restoration spaces
- site assessments for potential use
What does it mean to be designing for wellness?
Awareness of the sensory experience people might have, in response to the design choices of any built environment, is fundamental to creating spaces in which anyone wants to be. Designing For Wellness talks offer 5 essential strategies every developer, organization and community who cares about healthy people should know, based on my own sensory fluency and my involvement in the Neurodiversity and Design charrette led by the International WELL Building Institute. The work of that group is helping to shape the next version of the WELL Building Standard coming in 2024.
- 15-minute inspirational talks- 30-minute keynote address
- 1 to 3 hour workshops for CE credit, where applicable
WELL concepts explained through edutainment.
Leaders across all sectors are experiencing an explosive demand to prioritize wellness thinking. They know that today’s customers, workers, and residents want settings that feel welcoming, inclusive, and supportive of their sensory well-being. That’s why digestible, consumable media strategies are crucial for communicating how a project’s designs, programs, and policies are enhancing the health of everyone it touches. As an Emmy®-winning TV producer, on-air personality and pioneering author of the book, Designing For Wellness, I help select clients create consumable, multi-channel, wellness design content that educates, inspires and motivates audiences.
- video series, webisodes, network television- article writing for placement in national media
Designing For Wellness by Susie Frazier serves as a sensory introduction for corporate executives, real estate professionals, architects, designers, students and home owners interested in approaching their building projects with a mindfulness around the human experience, which Susie sees as foundational to the wellness design movement.
Winner of a 2020 International Book Award (Home & Garden category), a 2020 Living Now Book Award (Meditation/Relaxation category), and a 2020 Global eBook Award (Visionary/Inspirational category). Designing For Wellness was also recognized as a finalist in the 2020 Best Book Awards in both the Home + Garden and Psychology/Mental Health categories.
“Susie Frazier’s work highlights the beneficial effect of well building on well-being and illustrates how using elements of nature in our hospitals, homes, workplaces and daily environments can help heal our mind, body and spirit.”
– Dr. Roy Buchinsky, University Hospitals Director of Wellness
