Quintain and Fore Partnership have signed up to use a new ‘Healthy Homes Checklist’ tool created by built environment wellbeing consultancy Ekkist.
The checklist, which officially launched this week, uses science-based best practice to measure the health credentials of new homes and identifies areas for improvement in design and construction.
It comprises more than 130 practical steps across 12 categories that architects, developers and house builders can integrate from the design stage all the way through to post-occupancy.
Olga Turner Baker, Ekkist co-founder, said: “Not only do healthier homes have the potential to improve the lives of the public and reduce burdens on the NHS, but we are also seeing them be more popular with buyers. We see healthy homes as a ‘triple win’ – a win for consumers, a win for housing providers, and ultimately a win for society as a whole.”
Ben Channon, Ekkist director, added: “The sad truth is that lots of homes across the UK still negatively affect the physical and mental health of the people who live in them. This checklist will make it easier to design new healthy homes and retrofit existing houses to improve health outcomes for all – so that we can provide new homes in both the quantity and quality at which they are required.”
Aurélien Collignon, of FORE Partnership, said. “A number of intersecting societal shifts are dramatically transforming what the buildings of tomorrow will look like: an increasing focus on well-being, the blurring of personal and professional lives, an aging population and an epidemic of loneliness – all combined with the urgency to move to a low carbon economy.
“We are committed to creating places that produce positive outcomes for residents in terms of health, wellbeing, and quality of life, while also being good for their local community and the planet. We share Ekkist’s passion for health in the built environment, and we firmly believe that buildings that prioritise the well-being of people and the environment will also be assets that generate healthy returns too.”
Clare Masters, head of sustainability at Quintain, added: “It’s really important to us to ensure we continue building positive, healthy homes for our residents. We believe that the Healthy Homes Checklist will be a useful tool in helping us achieve this, which is why we’re trialling it across more than 1,000 apartments for rent at Wembley Park, using it to assess the health and wellbeing credentials of the newly launched Repton Gardens building [pictured] as well as two further plots that are currently under construction. We believe that building healthy homes is vital to creating places to live that are fit for the future and we are pleased to be partnering with Ekkist to do so.”
