Delos HQ

A WELL Certified space filled with natural light

Location

New York, NY

Lighting Designer

Atelier Ten

Architect

Gensler

Background

Delos is a wellness real estate and technology company that is transforming the lives of people around the world by creating residential and commercial spaces designed to improve health, well-being and performance. Informed by seven years of research and rigorous analysis of environmental health impacts on people, Delos and its affiliates offer an array of innovative technology, consulting and design solutions for residential and commercial spaces. As the New York-based team started outgrowing their first home, Delos saw an opportunity to build a new headquarters that would exemplify this mission.

Design Goals

1. Make the headquarters a showcase for Delos’ core wellness values and human-centric offerings
2. Give employees a truly adaptable space, offering a variety of work environments for different tasks
3. Give every employee access to natural light throughout the space
4. Pursue and achieve WELL Platinum, LEED Platinum, & the Living Building Challenge certifications

Challenges

Pursuing three separate building standards called for a high degree of collaboration between the designers, project managers and manufacturers. Janna Wandzilak, Director at Delos and the team’s go-to materials specialist carefully vetted close to 2,000 different products, speaking with manufacturers and studying their supply chains to conduct a rigorous evaluation against LEED and WELL certification requirements. Caitlin Toczko, Senior Lighting Designer at Atelier Ten led the team in tackling the various challenges of balancing the lighting features of WELL version 1 with the sustainability requirements of LEED version 4. Meticulous placement and calibration of Ketra’s tunable light sources were critical for balancing lighting power density (LPD) reduction for LEED with melanopic lux (EML) optimization for WELL.

“I worked very closely with the project team to validate architectural and product decisions that would impact the lighting and its ability to meet both WELL and LEED requirements.”

-Caitlin Toczko, Senior Lighting Designer, Atelier Ten

Why Delos Chose Ketra to Meet WELL

The WELL Building Standard^TM was founded on seven concepts of wellbeing in the built environment. One of these concepts is lighting, which WELL version 1 organizes into 13 lighting “features.” Note: The WELL version 2 pilot is built on 10 concepts with features being evaluated as pre-conditions or optimizations.

Ketra’s high degree of tunability and control along with its pre-programmed Natural Light show offered a solution that tightly aligned with WELL’s lighting requirements. Caitlin Toczko, along with the Delos project team selected Ketra lighting because:

Uniformity of color across Ketra’s individual diodes produces extremely high quality light output
Control system and individual addressability of each Ketra lamp fulfills a WELL feature requiring small control zones
Lighting designers can tune Ketra's spectral power distribution (SPD) and correlated color temperature (CCT) to meet WELL's EML requirement without increasing light intensity and power usage that could jeopardize LEED requirements
Post-installation adjustments for specific CCTs within distinct zones and rooms can be easily addressed from Ketra's mobile app to its wireless lighting system
Occupants have the flexibility to personalize the light around them as they see fit, providing them with the optimal environment for various tasks

A WELL Certified Space Filled with Natural Light

To meet WELL’s lighting feature requirements, the fixture layout was meticulously plotted to ensure luminaires were mounted in the best spots for employee workstations. In the open work area, daylight from surrounding windows fills the space while Ketra lamps and linear pendants mimic sunlight to extend natural light to every corner. Lamps are set to an astronomical timeclock to shift dynamically throughout the day, so employees feel more connected to the outdoors, and sensors are installed throughout the space so that indoor lighting dims in response to daylight. In meeting and training rooms, employees can override the natural show and personalize the light for collaboration, team presentations, or focused task work.

“As a company focused on transforming the indoor environment for people, we wanted to exemplify to our clients and industry partners that we’re supporting the health and well-being of our own employees.”

-Janna Wandzilak, Director, Delos Solutions, WELL Faculty, LEED AP

Results

In pursuance of three separate building standards focused on sustainability, wellness, and productivity, Delos has created a home for their team that is efficient and optimized for employees, customers and guests. Whether it’s dark and cloudy or bright and sunny, Ketra’s lighting provides the right light at the right time of day.

WELL V1 Lighting Credits Achieved by Delos with Ketra:

Feature 53 Visual Lighting Design
Feature 54 Circadian Lighting Design
Feature 55 Electric Light Glare Control
Feature 56 Solar Glare Control
Feature 57 Low-Glare Workstation Design
Feature 58 Color Quality
Feature 61 Right to Light
Feature 62 Daylight Modelling

Project photography by Naomi Castillo.

“We chose a space that would allow us to have a lot of natural daylight. It’s amazing to have a dynamic lighting system to match. Ketra is also really helpful in spaces with deep floor plates where desks and rooms occupying the deepest parts have no access to natural light.”

-Janna Wandzilak, Director, Delos Solutions, WELL Faculty, LEED AP