1.1 The WELL Building Standard & Project Typologies

1.1 The WELL Building Standard & Project Typologies

Quick Answer: The WELL Building Standard is the premier evidence-based rating system dedicated exclusively to human health and well-being in the built environment. Governed by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and third-party certified by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), WELL v2 organizes building interventions into 10 core concepts. Projects navigate one of three primary typologies—Owner-Occupied, WELL Core, or Multifamily Residential—adhering to rigorous space categorization and boundary rules.

The built environment exerts a profound, continuous influence on human physiology, cognitive performance, mental health, and longevity. Modern individuals spend approximately 90% of their lives indoors. While traditional green building rating systems such as LEED, BREEAM, and Green Star focus predominantly on environmental sustainability—reducing carbon emissions, conserving potable water, and optimizing operational energy performance—the WELL Building Standard places the human occupant at the absolute center of design, construction, and facilities decisions.

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1. Origins, Governance & Core Philosophy

Launched in October 2014 by Delos Living LLC after six years of multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed research, the WELL Building Standard represents the convergence of architectural design, facilities management, and biomedical science.

IWBI vs. GBCI: Distinct Governance Roles

To maintain technical integrity and prevent conflicts of interest, the administration, standard development, and third-party auditing of WELL are split between two distinct organizations:

Evidence-Based Medical Foundation

Every WELL feature is grounded in evidence-based research drawn from public health studies, clinical medicine literature, and occupational epidemiology. WELL translates clinical findings regarding environmental hazards and behavioral nudges into actionable design and operational interventions across eleven human physiological systems:

1. Cardiovascular System: Mitigating environmental stressors, reducing hypertension risk through indoor air filtration, and promoting regular physical movement.
2. Digestive System: Eliminating contaminated drinking water, providing wholesome nutrition, and curbing access to ultra-processed foods and artificial trans fats.
3. Endocrine System: Regulating circadian biological rhythms through daylight exposure and tuned melanopic lux to balance melatonin and cortisol secretion.
4. Immune System: Reducing pathogenic microbial exposure through surface hygiene protocols, handwashing infrastructure, and indoor humidity control.
5. Integumentary System: Minimizing dermal exposure to harsh toxic chemicals, irritants, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in cleaning agents and furnishings.
6. Muscular System: Mitigating musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) through active furnishings, adjustable task chairs, and accessible stair networks.
7. Nervous System: Enhancing cognitive focus, reducing mental fatigue, and limiting chronic sympathetic nervous system arousal through acoustic zoning, biophilic design, and restorative spaces.
8. Reproductive System: Restricting toxic endocrine disruptors, halogenated flame retardants, and phthalates commonly found in building materials and vinyl products.
9. Respiratory System: Eliminating combustion pollutants, fine particulate matter ($PM_{2.5}$, $PM_{10}$), and airborne mold spores through enhanced filtration and source control.
10. Skeletal System: Promoting bone mineral density through active staircases and supporting proper ergonomic spinal alignment through sit-stand workstations.
11. Urinary System: Providing readily accessible, clean potable water to prevent chronic dehydration and subsequent kidney stress.

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2. The Evolution: WELL v1 to WELL v2

The evolution from WELL v1 (2014) to WELL v2 (officially launched in 2020 following an extensive two-year pilot) transformed the standard from a rigid, monolithic framework into a streamlined, highly adaptable, and equitable platform.

Why the 10 Concepts Matter

WELL v2 split the overly broad "Comfort" concept of v1 into two independent, physics-driven concepts: Thermal Comfort and Sound. Furthermore, "Fitness" was expanded into Movement to emphasize ergonomic design, active circulation, and combating sedentary lifestyles. "Materials" was carved out as a dedicated concept to isolate toxic chemical management, VOC off-gassing, and supply-chain ingredient transparency. Finally, Community was introduced to encompass social equity, emergency preparedness, parental leave, family support, and occupant health surveys.

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3. Project Types: Owner-Occupied vs. WELL Core

WELL v2 applies to virtually any commercial, institutional, or residential space. Critically for the exam, WELL v2 sorts projects into two groups determined primarily by ownership type — owner-occupied projects and WELL Core projects. Multifamily residential is not a third pathway: it is a project profile that uses the ordinary WELL Certification pathway.

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                        WELL v2 PROJECT TYPES (TWO GROUPS)                     |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
|            OWNER-OCCUPIED             |              WELL CORE                |
|      (uses WELL Certification)        |     (uses WELL Core Certification)    |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| • Majority of regular occupants are   | • Majority of regular occupants are   |
|   affiliated with the project owner   |   NOT affiliated with the owner       |
| • Owner controls interiors, FF&E,     | • >=75% of project area is tenant-    |
|   cleaning and HR policy              |   occupied and/or shared common space |
| • Concept minimums apply at Silver/   | • NO concept minimums at ANY level    |
|   Gold/Platinum                       | • Feature point values differ from    |
| • Multifamily residential uses this   |   owner-occupied; extra point         |
|   pathway (>=5 dwelling units)        |   available for extending to tenants  |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+

A. Owner-Occupied

The project is occupied predominantly by the project owner (or by a single tenant that exercises direct operational control over design, furniture, finishes, cleaning protocols, and human resources policies).

• Scope: The project boundary covers the entire leased or owned footprint.
• Certification Tiers: Eligible for Bronze (40 pts), Silver (50 pts), Gold (60 pts) and Platinum (80 pts) — with concept minimums of 0/1/2/3 points per concept respectively.

B. WELL Core (Base Building)

WELL Core applies to buildings where the owner or developer controls base building design and central operations — structure, envelope, primary mechanical/electrical/plumbing (MEP) infrastructure, elevator banks, lobbies and public restrooms — while leasing tenant spaces to third parties. WELL Core under v2 was released in September 2020.

• Eligibility Test 1 — Occupant affiliation: The majority of regular building occupants must not be affiliated with the project owner (tenant employees, residents, students).
• Eligibility Test 2 — Area: At least 75% of the project area must be occupied by one or more tenants and/or serve as common space accessible to all tenants.
• Office-building allowance: Offices affiliated with the project owner but unrelated to managing the property may count as a tenant, provided unaffiliated tenants occupy at least 60% of the net leased area.
• Mixed-use allowance: The entire building may register for WELL Core if at least 60% of the project area is tenant-occupied. Below 60%, the project should register portions separately for WELL Certification or WELL Core, as appropriate.
• Applicability scopes: WELL Core features are met across the whole building, at non-leased spaces, across the extent of developer buildout, or for direct staff — the four scoping designations you must be able to distinguish on exam scenarios.
• The extra-point rule: For many features, a WELL Core project earns one additional point by also meeting the requirement inside tenant/leased spaces.
• Certification Tiers: WELL Core Bronze 40, Silver 50, Gold 60, Platinum 80 — with no minimum points per concept at any level.
• Interiors incentive: Interiors projects located inside a building registered for WELL Core receive a 20% discount on WELL Certification fees, including registration, GBCI performance testing and recertification fees.

C. Multifamily Residential (a WELL Certification profile, not a separate pathway)

Multifamily residential projects may pursue WELL if they contain at least five dwelling units in a single building with common structural elements — apartments, condominiums, townhouses and other residential complexes at any market threshold, including affordable, market-rate and luxury housing. These projects use the WELL Certification pathway (never WELL Core), even though most regular occupants are tenants and the owner may not complete the dwelling-unit fit-out.

• Dual Realm: The standard distinguishes dwelling units (private residential spaces) from common areas (lobbies, shared corridors, amenity gyms, shared laundry).
• Dwelling-unit testing rule (high-yield): Performance testing inside dwelling units for precondition features is not required at Bronze or Silver, but Gold and Platinum cannot be achieved without testing a sample of dwelling units (see A01, W01, W02, L02 and T01). For optimizations, dwelling-unit testing is required regardless of target level.
• At recertification, dwelling-unit testing is not required at any level — only common areas and spaces dedicated to building management.

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4. Space Categorization & Project Boundaries

Feature compliance in WELL depends on precise space categorization. Project teams must classify every square meter of the project layout into standardized space types during scorecard setup.

Occupant Classifications (memorize the exact WELL v2 wording)

• Occupant: any individual within the project boundary.
• Regular occupant: an individual who spends at least 30 hours per month across at least five days within the project boundary (e.g., employee, resident, student). Both halves of the test matter — 30 monthly hours compressed into two days does not qualify. Calculations for drinking water dispensers, bicycle storage and workstation ergonomics are sized on regular occupant counts.
• Visitor: WELL v2's official term for any occupant who is not a regular occupant (e.g., shopper, museum-goer, hotel guest). WELL v2 does not use LEED's phrase "transient occupant" — expect "visitor" in feature language.
• Building management staff: individuals responsible for maintaining and operating the building, including contractors and sub-contractors. Workers who spend fewer than 30 hours per month in the building are not regular occupants and are therefore not building management staff.
• Leased vs. non-leased space: leased space is every area within the boundary leased to or owned by tenants — including vacant space that is for lease or for sale. Non-leased space is everything else.

Space Categorization Framework

WELL divides interior spaces into functional categories that govern where sensors must be placed, where air samples are pulled, and which thresholds apply:

[!TIP] Large-room zoning rule. Rooms larger than 930 m² [10,000 ft²] may be divided into separate zones of at least 325 m² [3,500 ft²] each and evaluated for occupancy independently, so a warehouse with a small regularly occupied packing station can label just that zone.

[!IMPORTANT] Never round WELL calculations. Use the most expansive interpretation of the result. In a project with 21 workstations, Feature V02's "at least 25% of all workstations" requires six adjustable-height workstations, because five would reach only 23.8%.

Defining the Project Boundary

The project boundary brings specificity to the project's scope and may include both interior and exterior spaces.

• No unreasonable exclusions: The boundary "may not unreasonably exclude portions of the building, space or site to give the project an advantage in complying with feature requirements," and must be applied consistently across all features. Projects must accurately communicate their scope in all promotional materials.
• Exterior space: If the boundary includes outdoor space, that area is not counted when determining project area at registration (including for pricing). Outdoor space inside the boundary is subject to features that reach outdoor areas, such as X10 (Pest Management and Pesticide Use) and L02 illuminance on pathways.
• Multiple structures: A single project may encompass multiple physically unconnected structures if all buildings share the same ownership and management, are adjacent with no unaffiliated intervening land, are related to each other, and the project name accurately describes the group.
• Boundary allowances: Some features let a space within a stated distance of the boundary count. Feature N08 (Mindful Eating) accepts a designated eating space within a 200 m [650 ft] walk distance of the boundary, measured along a pedestrian-accessible path from a functional building entrance. A space outside the boundary used this way is not subject to other WELL features.
• Interiors credit for base-building amenities: An interiors project may claim base-building amenities outside its boundary — for example, the entrance stairs for V03 (Circulation Network), or base-building long-term bicycle parking for V04 — provided the amenities are reserved for the WELL project or sized for all building occupants.