The Guru Next Door the Truly Health-Obsessed Don’T Just Want to Eat Right and Get Some Exercise
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BE WELL BE STYLE The Guru Next Door The truly health-obsessed don’t just want to eat right and get some exercise. They want to live in a new kind of “wellness community.” by Sandra Ballentine. Illustrations by Andria Mongia FACED WITH EVER more transient Despite the moniker, it doesn’t mean green space, farmers’ markets, clean wellness trends (diets, detoxes, work- monster mansions overlooking the ninth food and air, spaces for socializing and outs, healers, supplements, superfoods, hole or marble-clad condos with “luxury coworking, and myriad indoor and out- spas, and sleep apps—oh my!), it’s easy spa amenities,” although sports and spas door fitness options. “If the culture of to experience wellness fatigue, or to feel definitely factor in. Instead, buildings and a place is healthier, you will be health- like you’re being wellness-washed. But as communities are being purpose-built or ier, period,” says Katherine Johnston, growing populations around the world renovated expressly with human health a senior research fellow at the Global compete for resources and struggle with and happiness in mind. Wellness Institute in Miami, who, along DEPARTURES real issues like sickness and soaring med- Recent studies indicate that genet- with fellow researcher Ophelia Yeung, ical costs, there’s one health-related trend ics may account for just 10 to 15 per- just completed a five-year study of the that might stick around—and it literally cent of our health outcomes, while nascent phenomenon. hits you where you live. lifestyle and environmental factors can Community is the linchpin of the “Wellness-lifestyle real estate” may not account for the rest. Health-conscious best wellness developments, accord- sound sexy, but it’s an increasingly hot home buyers and renters, especially mil- ing to Johnston and Yeung. Despite a topic among architects, developers, pub- lennials, are increasingly moving into global trend toward urbanization, says 88 lic health advocates, and governments. walkable communities with access to Yeung, “people want to feel like they “The idea of a smart house in a dumb neighborhood BE WELL BE makes no sense at all. The future—and new measure of wealth—will be about resiliency and self-reliance.” live in a village and be part of a commu- creating whole neighborhoods in rural things, from architecture to how we heat nity.” Community is more than a bunch and peri-urban areas that are not only and cool our homes to what we plant out- of pretty houses clustered into a leafy cul- sustainable but also regenerative. Regen- side them,” says Nygren. Set amid 1,200 de-sac, however. “It’s intangible. You can erative communities produce their own acres of preserved forests and meadows, only feel it,” she says. But it’s good for your healthy food and renewable energy, recy- with miles of walking, biking, and riding mental, emotional, and social wellness— cle their own water, and practice sophis- trails and a sizable organic farm, Serenbe not to mention security: You feel safe, like ticated waste-to-resource management was a leader in what’s known as the “agri- your neighbors have your back. And peo- that turns waste into tangible assets. “The hood” movement, or housing that con- ple are willing to pay a premium for it. future—and new measure of wealth— nects to a working farm. The community “Based on our observations, the trend will be about resiliency and self-reliance,” is made up of three picturesque hamlets, of wellness real estate is coming like a tsu- says Ehrlich. To this end, the New York with two more in the works. The first two, nami,” says Yeung. It could be a profit- native is spearheading the development Selbourne and Grange, have Arts and Agri- able wave. Consumers around the world of ReGen Villages, an innovative, off-the- culture as their respective themes, while already spend $3.7 trillion (or 5 percent grid residential concept with a pilot com- the newest one, Mado, centers around STYLE of global GDP in 2015) on various forms munity set to break ground next spring in Health and Wellness and includes a resort of wellness, from yoga, meditation apps, Almere, Netherlands, about 25 minutes destination spa, a community pool, a fit- spin classes, and sleep monitors to juic- east of Amsterdam. ness center, medicinal gardens, and an ers, vitamins, organic food, athletic wear, In Almere, 203 energy-positive homes integrative health and wellness center. and more. Since wellness real estate is val- will be constructed of “healthy” materials, More about self-care than about ued globally at around $134 billion, there’s including wood and glass, and will pro- saving the planet or pushing the tech clearly room for growth. vide easy access to pedestrian walkways, envelope, Amrit Ocean Resort and Resi- bike trails, and water for canoeing and dences, just north of Palm Beach, boasts a WHEN HOW NOT to design wellness kayaking, as well as yoga studios. A Village site plan and amenities inspired by what communities is discussed, the typi- Operating System will gather data that developer Dilip Barot calls the five pil- cal American suburb is usually offered houses will use to learn residents’ hab- lars of wellness: nutrition, fitness, mind- up as Exhibit A. The kind of car-centric its, providing them with things like grad- fulness, sleep, and relaxation. Located on planning that became popular in the ual amber lighting in the morning and 300 linear feet of beachfront on Singer 1950s and ’60s effectively separates intuitive ambient floor heating. Autono- Island, the two towers (one is named P, people’s homes from jobs, shops, and mous vehicles will eliminate the need for for Peace, the other H, for Happiness) are schools, forcing them to drive every- garages and driveways, with traditional set to open toward the end of 2019. Amrit where. Attached garages with automatic cars kept on the outskirts of the develop- will have a 100,000-square-foot indoor- door openers serve as moats, so it’s not ment. ReGen’s master plan, replete with outdoor spa and wellness program, as unusual for next-door neighbors to be central plazas, community centers, and well as a meditation garden, a fitness cen- complete strangers. And more often than gardens and orchards, is meant to encour- ter, yoga studios, a hydrotherapy suite, not, there are no sidewalks and scant age community involvement across gen- and a “wellness zone” with holistic health public space in which to take in fresh erational divides, which studies show specialists. Apartment options include air, exercise, and engage with other peo- improves long-term health outcomes. posture-supportive heat-reflexology ple. Several studies show that superficial “The idea is that you will see someone floors, automatic aromatherapy diffusers, encounters are vital to everyday men- with a walker and maybe someone with a circadian lighting, and sound blocking. In tal health. And they’re not referring to stroller having a wonderful conversation,” what could be a category first, each res- Tinder. A lack of social engagement and says Ehrlich. “Just one of the very simple, ident will be assigned a wellness coach, DEPARTURES eroded social trust can lead to alienation very pure, and very beautiful concepts that who will devise a “health road map,” and and loneliness. somehow we’ve lost along the way.” a personal wellness assistant, who will “The idea of a smart house in a dumb “It’s the way we should be living,” agrees help the resident follow it. neighborhood makes no sense at all,” says Steve Nygren, a pioneering cofounder in Perhaps the most civic-minded James Ehrlich, a senior technologist and 2004 of Serenbe, a highly successful, bio- wellness-led initiative under way in the entrepreneur in residence at Stanford philic-designed wellness community in U.S. is Destination Medical Center, an University. And we can’t all live in the cit- Chattahoochee Hills, near Atlanta. “We’ve ambitious 20-year plan to reinvigo- 90 ies. Instead, says Ehrlich, we need to be gotten so far away from simple, basic rate the entire downtown of Rochester, BE WELL BE Minnesota. A public/private partner- building in the world, the Pearl is a styl- the Blairs is a tobacco-free community. ship between the Mayo Clinic, which ish new rental property in Silver Spring, Fitwel isn’t the only guideline. employs roughly 34,000 of the city’s Maryland (steps away from verdant Rock Two closely watched new wellness 111,000 residents, and state, county, city, Creek Park and a 25-minute Metro ride communities—Grow, on Bainbridge and private investors, DMC will feature from the White House). It’s also the cen- Island, near Seattle, and Zibi, in high-tech, health-enhancing apartments, terpiece of a $750 million reimagining of Ottawa—follow the One Planet Living offices, and hotels and a vibrant, active the Blairs, a mixed-use development built principles: a ten-point “common sense” community for patients, visitors, and res- in 1959. “When we envisioned this whole sustainability framework for develop- idents. “We want to be able to attract the thing, we didn’t know it was called well- ers and governments that was devised by best and the brightest in the way of tal- ness,” says Jeffrey Abramson of Rockville, Pooran Desai, a cofounder of Bioregional, ent,” says Lisa Clarke, executive director Maryland–based Tower Companies, a London-based development firm and of Destination Medical Cen- sustainability pioneer. ter Economic Development In the One Planet Liv- Agency. “Much of that talent ing model, sustainability STYLE is looking for healthy down- and well-being are inextrica- town living, meaning we have bly linked.