KB Home and the Well Living Lab, founded as a collaboration between Delos® and Mayo Clinic, today announced the unveiling of a concept home designed to educate customers on the potential health benefits of a new KB home with health-related products and technologies. The home is located at the builder’s new Santolina at South Mountain community in Phoenix, which was chosen because of its proximity to the Mayo Clinic Scottsdale campus.
The Well Living Lab is the first scientific laboratory to conduct and apply human-centered research to understand the interaction between health, well-being and indoor environments. The Well Living Lab Healthy Home program focuses on the impact of the home environment on physical and mental health, sleep and performance, and provides a unique opportunity to translate and apply scientific discoveries that may improve the health and well-being of people in homes. KB Home is the first homebuilder to join the Well Living Lab Alliance, a consortium of global organizations aspiring to transform the places where people live, work and play.
The concept home demonstrates the potential health benefits of a new KB home through the latest advancements in design and construction materials. The concept home also features four microenvironments, informed by research from the Well Living Lab and its scientific collaborators. These microenvironments showcase health-focused products and technologies and can be viewed by visiting the community or by virtual tour.
- Health Remote Check-Up: Engages smart devices to measure health status and key biometrics of people in the home. Using a wellness intelligence ecosystem, the home environment can be adjusted to enhance aspects of health, such as sleep.
- MindBreaks™ Room: Offers a personalized wellness space that uses immersive audio and visual content intended to increase energy, reduce stress, enhance mood, improve focus and boost performance.
- Safer Inside: Showcases products and technologies designed to reduce virus transmission. This includes many products that come standard in a new KB home and others that are available at the KB Home Design Studio.
- Home Office Reimagined: Features products and technologies that depict elements of a supportive home office, such as ergonomically correct furnishings and flexible office products. It also showcases the new KB Home Office, a dedicated room that can easily be personalized for a productive work environment.
“The Well Living Lab and KB Home share a commitment to improve the health and well-being of individuals and families,” said Dr. Véronique Roger, Research Director of the Well Living Lab and Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Mayo Clinic. “Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors—perhaps even more so now with the pandemic. It’s more important than ever to ensure our home environments are as healthy as they can be.”
Twenty years ago, KB Home built its first ENERGY STAR® certified new home. Today, every KB home is designed to be ENERGY STAR certified and delivers an enhanced indoor environment thanks to quality construction techniques and materials as well as high performance ventilation systems that regularly introduce fresh outdoor air. The company incorporates design features guided by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Indoor airPLUS standards, including low- or zero-VOC products in carpeting, paint, insulation and cabinetry, and comprehensive air sealants to significantly reduce drafts, moisture, dust and pollen as well as antimicrobial door handles and touchless faucets to reduce the spread of germs.
“As a pioneer in the science of building healthier homes and as the first homebuilder to partner with the Well Living Lab, we’re proud to showcase the benefits of a new KB home and the latest healthy home technologies and products in a real-life setting,” said Jeffrey Mezger, KB Home’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We remain committed to delivering the benefits of health and comfort, and offering affordable new homes that can make a positive impact on our customers’ well-being.
KB Home has been a strong champion for many years of the key role homebuilders can play in constructing healthier homes. The collaboration between KB Home and the Well Living Lab further reinforces the homebuilder’s commitment to promoting health and wellness through sustainable homebuilding.
KB Home (NYSE: KBH) is one of the largest and most recognized homebuilders in the United States and has been building quality homes for over 60 years. Today, KB Home operates in 45 markets across eight states, serving a wide array of buyer groups. What sets us apart is how we give our customers the ability to personalize their homes, from homesites and floor plans to cabinets and countertops, at a price that fits their budget. We are the first builder to make every home we build ENERGY STAR® certified. In fact, we go beyond the EPA requirements by ensuring every KB home has been tested and verified by a third-party inspector to meet the EPA’s strict certification standards, which helps to lower the cost of ownership. We also work with our customers every step of the way, building strong personal relationships so that they have a real partner in the homebuying process and the experience is as simple and easy as possible.
The Well Living Lab, founded as a collaboration of Delos and Mayo Clinic in 2016, is dedicated to identifying how indoor environments impact human health and well-being. It conducts scientific research with human subjects in a simulated real-world environment and shares practical findings that can be applied to improving indoor spaces where people spent approximately 90 percent of their time. The lab has 5,500 square-feet of sensor-rich, reconfigurable space in downtown Rochester, Minnesota.
