In 2018 the UAE Federal Cabinet passed a resolution requiring landlords to make accommodations for individuals with disabilities in the workplace. While innocuous to many, this policy was important as “people of determination” can find it difficult and at times impossible to access buildings, resources, recreational activities, and transport. 

As many recent studies have shown, human mobility is as dependent on the mind as it is the body. For example, if a person is dyslexic (neurodiverse) it might make it difficult for them to navigate complex building layouts. Other mental disorders, such as anxiety, can affect how a person pays attention to their environment affecting navigation and their overall experience. Anxiety can also be physically crippling with panic attacks making moving around cities more complex and fatiguing. 

Therefore, it is essential, when considering how to make buildings more accessible in the context of the 21st century, that we consider the mental aspects of mobility. This is even more important as we face a workforce currently recovering from a global pandemic which, due to various social, economic, and Governmental actions, will catalyze widespread mental health consequences. We can expect more people to experience mental health issues than before the pandemic, which will require renewed and specialized attention from all those involved in the built environment. 

More often than not, the main obstruction to a building’s performance from a mental perspective is biological stress. Put simply, when a physical environment presents the human system with changes it cannot adapt to, the person will mentally interpret the environment as uncomfortable, disorientating, or a “bad” place to be. This in turn can create a distance between the user and their environment. The stress response is one of the most fundamental biological systems in relation to connecting us to the external world. Its main purpose is to help our body adapt to changes or stimuli in the environment.  Stress can amplify symptomology and amplify any secondary conditions they may have and could lead to making the symptoms more acute, whether it is making people more sensitive to sensorial experiences or leaving them unable to access their usual coping mechanisms.

If we, in our industry, do not consider the full spectrum of experiences, we can often unwittingly make our buildings exclusive by not understanding and respecting the sensitivities of everybody’s neurobiological experience. What we must do is treat those who are neurodiverse as equals through inclusive building design and management. While we have limited control over stress originating from psychological trauma we can, to a degree, work to mitigate the physiological risk by factors such as air pollution through controls strategies, treatment, and monitoring to deliver improvements that reduce allostatic load and enhance wellbeing through stress reduction.

As the introduction of neuroscience into the urban realm and built environment gathers pace, we can begin to understand more about how environments burden the neuro and physical biological system and put people at risk for poor mental and physical health outcomes. That is why we have partnered with Centric Lab, using their research into the stress response system to help us at CBRE identify holistic and implementable solutions that have a broad spectrum of benefits. This will help us close a knowledge gap between population health and the built environment enabling us to be more focused with their inputs and comfortable in achieving positive human outcomes. We believe that this will help us support our clients, and just as importantly the occupiers of the buildings we manage, in demonstrating a duty of care to all and demonstrably achieving both ours and our clients ESG goals related to social impact, health, and wellbeing.

Whatever the nature of the office we return to post Covid-19, it’s clear that people want the buildings they use to make a positive contribution to their long-term health. 

If you would like to know more, please contact carl.brooks@cbre.com for further information or email alex.barzycki@cbre.com for an introduction to our ESG team.

About the author

Alex Barzycki, Associate Director, Property Management

Alex has extensive knowledge of the ever-evolving client and occupier requirements, through the lifecycle of the asset, from the initial planning stage to the repositioning of an underperforming investment. Alex has six years of experience working for prestigious clients across all asset classes playing an instrumental role in the strategic management including implementation of value enhancement strategies and all aspects of day to day management to ensure the seamless and efficient functionality of portfolios.