Framework
Six guiding principles for designing built environments that actively support human health, extend healthspan, and create lasting value.
"The built environment is the next frontier and greatest future opportunity for wellness."
— Global Wellness Institute, 2025
We spend over 90% of our lives indoors. The spaces we inhabit—our homes, workplaces, and communities—have a profound impact on our physical health, mental wellbeing, and longevity. Yet most buildings are designed with little consideration for human biology.
Longevity architecture changes this. Drawing on peer-reviewed research across environmental health, circadian biology, materials science, and behavioral design, these six principles provide a framework for creating spaces that don't just shelter us—they actively support our health and extend our healthspan.
Based on the Global Wellness Institute's 2025 Build Well to Live Well report and adapted for the MAVI Framework, these principles guide our approach to every project.
Any size, any type, any price point
Longevity architecture is not limited to luxury developments or large-scale projects. The principles can be applied to a single room renovation, a modest apartment, or an entire community. What matters is the intention to create spaces that support human health, regardless of budget or scope.
01
Large Scale
Start at planning, embrace holistic design
Effective longevity architecture begins with intention from the very first planning meeting. Rather than adding wellness features as an afterthought, health considerations should drive design decisions from the ground up. This approach addresses multiple dimensions of wellness simultaneously—physical, mental, social, and environmental.
02
to Multidimensional
Beyond safety to active enhancement
Traditional building codes focus on minimum safety standards—preventing collapse, fire, and basic hazards. Longevity architecture goes further, designing spaces that actively enhance wellbeing. Buildings should leave occupants feeling better than when they entered, with improved mood, sleep quality, cognitive function, and long-term health outcomes.
03
Optimizing Wellness
Environmental factors plus behavior encouragement
Some wellness features work passively—clean air, filtered water, and circadian lighting benefit occupants simply by existing. But longevity architecture also incorporates active design elements that encourage healthy behaviors: prominent staircases that invite walking, outdoor spaces that draw people outside, and layouts that foster social connection.
04
Active Wellness
Embedded in design, activated through programming
Wellness cannot be reduced to a list of amenities—a spa, a gym, a meditation room. True longevity architecture embeds health-promoting features into the very fabric of a building: the materials, the systems, the spatial relationships. These are then activated through ongoing operations, programming, and community engagement that bring the space to life.
05
to Operations
Individual wellness connected to community health
Modern wellness culture often focuses on individual optimization—personal biometrics, private retreats, exclusive access. Longevity architecture recognizes that our health is deeply connected to our communities. The best projects blur the boundaries between private and public, creating spaces that benefit not just occupants but neighbors, visitors, and the broader community.
06
to 'We'
The MAVI Framework
These principles are applied across twelve interconnected domains, each backed by peer-reviewed research and translated into actionable design specifications.
🌬️
Filtration, ventilation, VOC reduction
💧
Filtration, mineralization, hydration access
☀️
Natural light, circadian lighting, dark sky
🔇
Sound insulation, noise reduction, acoustic design
🌡️
Temperature control, humidity, radiant systems
🏗️
Non-toxic materials, healthy surfaces, VOC-free
🌿
Nature connection, plants, natural materials
🚶
Active design, ergonomic spaces, stairs
⚡
EMF reduction, grounding, electrical hygiene
🌍
Site selection, soil health, contamination
👥
Prosocial design, gathering spaces, connection
🧘
Restorative spaces, beauty, contemplation
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