The WELL Building Standard, a certification mark of the International WELL Building Institute, organises its health and wellbeing subject matter into exactly ten concepts: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind and Community. Innovation sits outside those concepts as an additional route for recognising eligible work; it is not an eleventh concept.
The concepts provide the main map through which a project team understands the scope of the standard. Rather than treating health-supporting design as a single technical discipline, the scheme separates it into subject areas that can be assigned to appropriate designers, contractors, managers and operational owners.
The boundaries are organisational rather than absolute. A decision made under one concept can affect another because buildings operate as connected systems. Ventilation can influence thermal experience, material choices can influence indoor air, and spatial planning can influence movement, sound and community. The concept headings help allocate work, but they do not remove those interactions.
For UAE projects, the structure can also expose handover risks. Some concepts are strongly influenced by the base building, some by fit-out, some by day-to-day management and some by organisational policy. Mapping each concept against the project scope helps identify where the developer, tenant, consultant or facilities team controls the relevant subject.
Air covers the conditions and management approaches that influence what occupants breathe indoors. Its subject area includes the building systems, sources, pathways and operating practices that can affect indoor air quality, without treating air quality as a single measurement or a single design decision.
Water covers water quality, access and management where water is provided for occupants. Its scope recognises that drinking-water provision depends not only on the incoming supply but also on storage, distribution, maintenance and the way water is made available within the occupied environment.
These concepts are placed separately because air and water behave differently within buildings and require different professional inputs. Air may involve mechanical design, source control and operational management, while water may involve supply, treatment, plumbing and hygiene. Both nevertheless depend on continued operation rather than design intent alone.
Nourishment covers the food environment that a project owner or relevant operator controls. It concerns how the setting, information and organisational approach around food and drink can support informed and healthier choices, rather than judging every personal eating decision made by an occupant.
Light covers visual and non-visual aspects of the luminous environment. Its subject area includes how daylight and electric lighting are planned and experienced, recognising that light affects visibility, comfort, orientation and patterns of exposure across the occupied day.
Movement covers the ways in which buildings, interiors and organisational practices can support physical activity and reduce unnecessary physical strain. It considers both opportunities to move and the practical relationship between people, workstations, circulation and everyday routines.
These three concepts demonstrate why the standard extends beyond conventional engineering performance. Food provision, lighting design and opportunities for activity are shaped by different teams, yet each can be affected by early spatial planning and later operational decisions. The concept structure makes those responsibilities visible before they are dispersed across separate workstreams.
Thermal Comfort covers how occupants experience temperature and related environmental conditions. Its scope recognises that comfort is affected by both building performance and individual variation, so the subject cannot be reduced to a single thermostat setting.
Sound covers the acoustic conditions of occupied spaces. It addresses the relationship between activity, privacy, concentration, communication and the way sound is transmitted, absorbed or managed within the building.
The separation of these concepts is useful because acceptable engineering operation does not always produce an acceptable occupant experience. A system may function as designed while people still report local discomfort, and an interior may satisfy its intended layout while sound travels in ways that disrupt work. The concepts encourage the project team to consider the human response alongside technical delivery.
Thermal and acoustic conditions are also sensitive to use. Changes in occupancy density, furniture, partitions, equipment or operating patterns can alter the environment after handover. Their place within the ten-concept structure therefore links design thinking with facilities management rather than confining the subject to completion-stage checks.
Materials covers the health-related implications of products, substances and material management within construction and operation. Its subject area includes the way materials are selected, documented, maintained and handled, while recognising that product information and building use both influence potential exposure.
Mind covers aspects of the built and organisational environment that can support mental wellbeing. It brings attention to restorative experience, access to support, organisational culture and the way a place may contribute to stress reduction or psychological comfort without presenting a building as a form of clinical treatment.
Community covers inclusion, health-supporting organisational practices and the relationship between a project and the people it serves. Its scope recognises that wellbeing is shaped by access, participation, preparedness and social conditions as well as by physical building systems.
These concepts broaden the scheme beyond environmental measurements. Materials still has a direct connection to design and procurement, while Mind and Community often require input from management, human resources, workplace strategy or community-facing functions. Their presence in the same framework reflects the scheme's intention to examine both place and practice.
Innovation is additional to the ten concepts and should not be described as another concept. It provides a separate place within the scheme for eligible approaches that extend beyond the ordinary structure or otherwise meet the scheme's innovation provisions. The distinction preserves the fixed ten-concept framework while allowing the programme to recognise work that does not fit neatly within it.
This positioning matters when a project creates its responsibility matrix. Air through Community form the concept structure, whereas Innovation is managed as a separate opportunity. Combining Innovation with the ten concepts can distort reporting and make the project appear to have a subject area that the standard does not actually define.
Innovation should also not be used as a general label for any unusual design idea. A creative feature may be valuable to a project without qualifying within the scheme's innovation route. The project team still needs to understand the scheme owner's current criteria and evidence expectations before treating an idea as part of the certification strategy.
The concept structure can be converted into a responsibility map without reproducing the scheme's detailed requirements. Each concept can be linked to the parties who influence it during briefing, design, procurement, construction, commissioning, handover and operation. This helps reveal gaps where no party has accepted ownership.
The map should also distinguish between control and contribution. A mechanical consultant may contribute to Air and Thermal Comfort, but the operator may control settings and maintenance after handover. An architect may shape Light, Movement, Sound and Community through planning, while specialist designers and the client's policies determine whether the intended outcomes remain achievable.
The neighbouring pages address preconditions and optimisations, certification scoring and the distinction between full certification and separate ratings; those subjects are intentionally not repeated in this concept overview.
For an independent information website, the ten concepts are best presented as subject headings rather than as a reproduced scorecard or feature catalogue. The scheme manual remains the source for current requirements, applicability and verification. A summary should help readers understand the landscape without substituting for the material controlled by International WELL Building Institute pbc.
An independent resource. WELL is a certification mark of the International WELL Building Institute pbc. No affiliation, endorsement or accreditation.
There are exactly ten: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind and Community. The count should not be expanded by treating Innovation as another concept.
No. Innovation is additional to the ten concepts. It is a separate route within the scheme for eligible work and should be shown outside the main concept list rather than presented as an eleventh subject area.
Not exactly. Some concepts align strongly with particular disciplines, but most require contributions from several parties. Air may involve mechanical design, construction controls and facilities management, while Community may involve design, management and organisational policy. The concepts organise subject matter rather than define consultant appointments.
Yes. The concepts are separated for organisation, but the building remains an interconnected system. A facade decision may influence Light and Thermal Comfort, a partition layout may influence Sound and Community, and a materials decision may influence Materials and Air.
No. It provides a high-level explanation of the ten subject areas and the position of Innovation. Detailed requirements, applicability rules and evidence pathways remain in the current scheme material issued by International WELL Building Institute pbc.
This site is an independent information resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, accredited by or authorised by the International WELL Building Institute pbc, which owns the WELL certification mark, and it is not a certification body, an assessor, a performance testing provider or a scheme partner. Nothing on this page can certify, assess or award anything under the scheme, and nothing here is a substitute for the scheme's own published documentation. Requirements are summarised factually rather than reproduced; where a numeric threshold is stated it is drawn from documentation the scheme's owner publishes openly, and the specific figure is cited rather than the table it sits in. Certification under the scheme is voluntary and is not required by any authority in the United Arab Emirates.