Category: Community

Designing Healthier Homes : Wellogy Design Charette and UC Class Engagement Reveal Top 3 Concepts

by Jennifer M. Bobbitt

The guiding principle of our work is to “create places of well-being to enrich people’s lives.” Driven by this ideal, our trademarked concept, Healthy Urbanism™, is integrating intentionally designed elements that help communities thrive and prosper. We promote the healthy outcomes of communities by working with partners engaged in designing a better way to live.

Wellogy (formerly Davis Wince, Ltd.) has been working with healthy home concepts for several years. We’ve partnered with home builders, manufacturers of home materials, and town planners to design a template for incorporating wellness into the home. Senior planners, designers, and seasoned veterans in their fields with knowledge and experience have all contributed to our mission to design healthier homes in pursuit of overall improved health and wellness. The year of COVID shook up the game and made us dig deeper for solutions and possibilities as we move into a new world with more remote working, learning, and enhanced safety protocols. The need for an efficient, safe, and “well” home has never been more apparent. We have broadened our thinking and our search for solutions by tapping into additional resources and innovations.

The 2020 pause in design and construction allowed us to engage with new voices and explore ways to contribute beyond immediate project needs. We took two varied approaches to explore healthy homes opportunities further, and both yielded interesting, marketable results. The top three ideas that rose to the surface in our discovery and exploration are:

  1. Invest in healthy materials and sustainable options to impact wellness
  2. Design flexible living spaces to adapt to changing needs of the home
  3. Include accessible design to allow residents to age in place

We reached these conclusions through two concentrated efforts. The first approach was an internal design charrette, including our entire Wellogy team. The project addressed the need to incorporate the elements of Healthy Urbanism™ into a small town in Central Florida. The goal was to improve the services in the area so residents could have everything they needed within a 15- minute walking distance of their home, thus creating Healthy Urbanism™. The community was also in need of housing that would serve the current population and support new growth.

Our firm divided into teams and met regularly for six weeks as we researched, designed, and modified our concepts. We analyzed trends and challenges and brainstormed the ideal collection of homes for this area based on market needs. The final designs included:

We focused on creating pocket neighborhoods and providing options like age-in-place and ADU’s to co-locate support. The designs are flexible, inviting, and incorporated into the community, allowing residents to easily engage with needs, services, and entertainment and not rely heavily on transportation.

The second approach involved engaging with 25 University of Cincinnati Visual Innovation Studio (VIS) students. Working with the University of Cincinnati and the VIS class led by Associate Professor Aaron Bradley, we created a project overview for the design exercise. The VIS project challenged the group of students to explore two primary questions. First, how can healthy home environments improve their inhabitants’ social, health, and economic, mental well-being? And second, how does the design of a healthy home fit into and enhance the Healthy Urbanism™ formula? We provided architects and planners a team to support the students by responding to their questions and providing additional information.

According to Bradley, “This is a new program we created in response to COVID and the fact that students wouldn’t be able to have traditional co-op experiences, and many companies had innovation challenges that would benefit from students’ perspectives.” Bradley is an Associate Professor of Creative, Culture, and Social Impact Initiatives in UC’s Division of Experience-Based Learning and Career Education.

The 25 students presented the final presentation deck via a Zoom meeting to display their findings to Wellogy associates. Teams were encouraged to incorporate digital prototypes, images of physical prototypes, data visualizations, and interactive elements when possible and relevant (3D/SLA printed models, mockups, etc.). Compiling research from articles, interviews, and existing research data, they determined four key features of a Healthy Home- adaptable space, water quality/ access, maximized lighting, and air environment.

The students created consumer profiles and explored the option of designing spaces where people could age in place. “Something that I found very intriguing was the thought of aging with the home. I have moved around a lot so thinking about living somewhere long term never has crossed my mind. I do think it is important to think about though and how the home can adapt with the homeowner to be accessible/user friendly,” according to Chloe Pi, University of Cincinnati Industrial Design student, Class of 2024.

According to Gary Gray, Wellogy architect, and Healthy Homes innovator, the students were thoughtful and thorough in their designs. They even took the extra step to code graphics to provide a visual aide showing before to after images of age in place transformation for critical rooms in a home. Gray is a long-time designer and developer of homes throughout the United States and has worked for several large home builders.
Click the photo to see the before and after

Both exploration exercises yielded similar expectations for future healthy homes with flexibility, age in place, and homes incorporated into a walkable community. Wellogy continues to evolve their healthy home design concepts and create solutions for designing communities focused on wellness. Our challenge now is to expand the consumer’s knowledge and benefit of the healthy home, influence the market away from urban sprawl and look to the future full of innovative ideas to improve our quality of life.

Exploring Healthy Homes Ideas with the University of Cincinnati VIS Class

by Jennifer M. Bobbitt

The Visual Innovation Studio (VIS) project challenged a group of 25 University of Cincinnati students to explore two primary questions. First, how can a healthy home environment improve its inhabitants’ social, health, and economic, mental well-being? And second, how does the design of a healthy home fit into and enhance the Healthy Urbanism™ formula? Wellogy (formerly Davis Wince, Ltd.) provided architects and planners to support the students by responding to their questions and providing additional information.

“I learned a lot about the design process through this project. Aaron Bradley, our faculty advisor, taught us to ‘fall in love with the problem’ before we even started forming solutions. By doing so, we could fully understand what needed to be addressed and had something to fall back on when revising the project,” according to Natalie Kunes, University of Cincinnati Urban Planning student.

University of Cincinnati Associate Professor Aaron Bradley teaches the popular innovation class and is well known to his students for challenging their thinking and pushing them outside their comfort zone of ideas.

“I’m constantly surprised at the effort it takes to get them (students) to push past the ‘safe’ answers at early stages of an innovation project. I think that by the time they get to university, they’ve had years and years of very linear approaches to education and a lot of classroom situations where there’s ultimately only one “right” answer that the test or the teacher has set up. Creative problem solving implies that there are multiple ‘right’ ways to solve a problem. Over the years, I’ve come to expect this, so I build in a lot of early work in this area at the start of every new project with students. As they get more comfortable with the idea that it’s OK (in fact, it’s encouraged) to push past boundaries and propose bold ideas, the creative process always gets a lot more fun, and the results are more impactful,” Bradley said.

The students were divided into teams, each consisting of multiple disciplines, and started their research and exploration. Each week, Wellogy staff interacted with the students numerous times to help ensure the project moved forward and involved complete information and mentorship.

“This virtual class setting, although not conventional, was the perfect think tank for possibilities. The past year has taught us to listen, learn and be open to new ideas and opportunities,” according to Kathy Kelly, Wellogy architect and Director of Strategy. Kelly was actively involved with the students every week as they researched and looked for ideas.

Chloe Pi, University of Cincinnati Industrial Design student, Class of 2024, said the research and design phase also sparked new ideas for her.

“I learned a lot about the research phase within the design process. I learned that topics unrelated to the prompt you have been given can be helpful and that it does not have to directly relate to the subject matter. It can be something as simple as understanding more about human behavior,” Pi said.

At the end of the five weeks, the students compiled their research findings and insights and packaged their graphics into a well-orchestrated presentation. Wellogy architect Gary Gray was impressed with the level of detail to which the students explored the healthy home idea.

“From materials like copper handles to reduce the transmission of bacteria and adjustable height bathroom counters and cooktops, the students addressed the adaptations for a healthier home and aging in place options,” Gray said.


Wellogy architects Gray and Kelly agreed; they learned a lot from their experience as mentors and found the information the students created very inspiring and innovative. The designs have sparked new conversations and ideas both in architecture and for aspiring students.

“There are things that have influenced what I envision my future home(s) to be like. I can incorporate small things into a current residence or bigger things like the kind of materials I use. But on a broader scale, how can I be more conscious of how my home functions with surrounding homes and communities,” Kunes said.

Bradley noted that this class was different due to COVID-19 related restrictions put on students this semester.

“Bringing us a challenge that has the potential for real impact was paramount. All too often students are given a very constrained problem set to work with, and the output is very tactical (redline a set of plans, design a logo, etc.). It was great to work on a challenge that asks larger questions of human behaviors and human futures,” according to Bradley.

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