Lindsey Webster, Co-founder of L+ Architects and head of L+ Living, explores how biophilic and neuro-inclusive design principles are shaping mixed-use and high-end residential projects, enhancing occupant health, comfort, and long-term building performance.
Designing for well-being is rapidly moving from a desirable enhancement to a core requirement across commercial, mixed-use and high-end residential architecture. Clients are no longer satisfied with buildings that simply look sustainable or visually impressive; they are asking how spaces actively support health, productivity, comfort and long-term performance. This is reflecting a broader change in how success is measured in the built environment. Well-being is increasingly understood not as an aesthetic layer but as a performance outcome, influencing decisions from the earliest stages of site planning and massing through to material selection and environmental strategy.
Too often, well-being has been reduced to visual signals – greenery in shared spaces, natural finishes, softer forms – but its real value lies in measurable impact. Daylight is not just a visual benefit but a contributor to circadian rhythm and cognitive function. Acoustic control is not merely technical compliance but central to concentration and stress reduction. Air quality, space, proportion and access to views all influence how people feel and perform within a building. When these factors are embedded early in the design process, rather than applied as surface level treatments, projects tend to deliver stronger long-term outcomes for both users and owners.
Many of the principles now grouped under biophilic design are not new ideas but a rediscovery of long-standing architectural wisdom. Historic and heritage buildings were often shaped by climate, daylight, ventilation and locally available materials, resulting in environments that feel inherently comfortable and durable. Generous ceiling heights, operable windows, layered thresholds and strong relationships to landscape were common features, not luxury additions – these buildings were designed around human needs because they had to be.
Renewed interest in biophilic thinking is the growing importance of neuro-inclusive design. This approach recognises that people experience space differently and that environments can either support or overwhelm cognitive and sensory processing. Importantly, neuro-inclusivity is not limited to those with diagnosed conditions. Spaces that manage sensory load, provide clarity of movement and allow personal control benefit everyone. Balanced lighting, reduced glare, controlled acoustics and intuitive flow contribute to calmer and more effective environments across workplaces, education settings and homes. Rather than creating uniform interiors, neuro-inclusive thinking encourages a range of spatial conditions, from collaborative and social areas to quieter zones of retreat, allowing users to choose the environment that best supports their task or mood.
Regulatory change is also playing a constructive role in this evolution. Stricter sustainability standards, biodiversity requirements and performance targets are often seen as constraints, yet they are increasingly encouraging more thoughtful and integrated design. Greater emphasis on energy performance, landscape value and environmental impact is pushing teams to engage earlier with site conditions, building envelope quality and passive strategies. This tends to produce architecture that is more coherent and resilient, reducing reliance on mechanical correction and late-stage compromise. When environmental performance and human experience are considered together, the resulting buildings are typically both more efficient and more enjoyable to occupy.
These shifts are also changing how design teams are structured and how projects are delivered. Clients are placing greater value on integrated teams where architecture, interiors and landscape are developed in parallel from the outset. When disciplines collaborate early, connections between inside and outside are stronger, material strategies are more consistent, and spatial sequencing feels more natural. This joined-up approach often reduces redesign, controls cost and improves programme certainty while also producing calmer, more legible buildings. The benefits are experiential as well as practical: spaces simply work better because they have been conceived as a whole rather than assembled in parts.
What is becoming clear across sectors is that well-being is no longer a niche interest or a branding exercise. It is becoming a baseline expectation. Better-informed clients, more aware occupiers and stronger performance evidence are driving demand for environments that support human health and cognitive function as standard.
Biophilic and neuro-inclusive principles are gaining traction because they are grounded in real patterns of human response, not passing trends. As the industry continues to balance sustainability targets, regulatory pressure and commercial realities, designing for well-being offers a unifying framework – one that delivers value not only in how buildings look, but in how they perform and how they are experienced every day.