Beyond Green Certification: Designing Interiors for Everyday Wellbeing

In a dense, fast-moving city such as Hong Kong, most of our lives unfold indoors. That makes the spaces around us consequential. They influence how we focus, connect, rest, and recover.

At Liquid Interiors, we believe a genuinely sustainable interior must protect both the planet and the people who use it. Environmental certifications are an important part of that commitment. They provide a rigorous framework for reducing resource use and improving building performance. But certification is not the end of the conversation. The more enduring question is simple: how will this space feel to the people who spend time in it?

That question became central to our work at the Ladies’ Recreation Club, where we redesigned two floors: The Arcade, a digital-play environment, and The Hub, a screen-free active-play area and junior library. The project achieved LEED ID+C Silver certification, an outcome our team is proud of. It also clarified what we want sustainable interiors to deliver beyond a scorecard.

LEED has helped move the built environment forward by giving project teams practical ways to reduce environmental impact. At the Ladies’ Recreation Club, our work included reducing water use, improving energy performance through LED lighting and efficient heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, and diverting demolition waste from landfill.

One memorable feature was a wall veneer made from upcycled denim jeans. Material that might otherwise have been discarded became a durable, low-emitting finish with a distinct visual identity. It is a good example of the circular thinking we want to see more often in commercial interiors.

LEED also recognises that an interior environment matters to occupants. Its Indoor Environmental Quality category addresses factors including indoor air quality and thermal, visual and acoustic comfort. Yet a certification strategy must work within a project’s particular constraints, priorities and point target. It does not remove the designer’s responsibility to ask how every part of a space will support the people within it.

A material can be low-impact and beautifully made, for example, without necessarily helping someone feel calm, focused or restored. Sustainable design must do both: reduce harm and improve the quality of daily life.

The difference is especially clear in spaces for children and families. Reducing screen time can lower overstimulation, but it is only one part of a supportive environment. Children also need daylight, comfortable places to settle with a book, room to move, and quieter corners where they can pause.

People experience a space every day, not only on opening day or certification day. They notice whether voices echo across the room. They notice whether the air feels fresh after a busy afternoon. They notice whether there is a view, a moment of softness, or a place to step away from noise.

Research has long pointed to the importance of these seemingly small details. In a landmark study, hospital patients assigned to rooms with views of trees had shorter postoperative stays and required fewer pain medications than comparable patients whose windows faced a brick wall. The setting was clinical, but the broader lesson is useful in many types of interiors: what people see is not merely decorative; it can shape their experience of a place.

As Esther Sternberg explores in Healing Spaces, the physical environment can affect stress, attention, and a person’s sense of wellbeing. This is not an argument for treating every interior like a spa. It is an argument for designing with the senses in mind.

At the Ladies’ Recreation Club, we used four principles to extend the project’s sustainability ambition into the everyday experience of members.

We brought nature into the interior. Live planting was introduced where appropriate, while biophilic design informed colours, patterns and forms. References to trees, animals, leaves and clouds created small moments of familiarity and connection to the natural world.

We designed for both energy and ease. Efficient systems and responsible material choices mattered, but so did the quality of light, tactility and visual calm. The goal was not to add features for their own sake. It was to create a setting that feels welcoming and resilient throughout a busy day.

We treated acoustics as a wellbeing issue. Soft flooring, padded surfaces and sound-absorbing materials helped manage reverberation. In active environments, this makes a tangible difference. It gives children space to play while allowing parents, carers and other members to read, talk or take a quiet pause.

We viewed indoor air quality as an ongoing responsibility. Air quality should not be thought of only as a pre-opening compliance exercise. It is also part of operational practice. Simple habits can matter: when building conditions and procedures allow, opening a window can help clear lingering odours or pollutants after activities such as cooking or maintenance work. The key is to give teams a practical, shared understanding of how to care for the space after handover.

None of these decisions is a substitute for environmental certification. Together, however, they add the layer that certification alone cannot fully capture: the lived experience of a room.

The Ladies’ Recreation Club project reinforced three beliefs that continue to guide our work.

First, green certification is a valuable environmental foundation. It brings discipline, accountability and measurable progress to a project.

Second, wellbeing requires more than the absence of risk. People need spaces that make room for rest, focus, connection and recovery.

Third, designers translate performance into human experience. We make choices that no scorecard can completely assess: the sound of a busy room, the comfort of a reading nook, the relief of a clear view and the confidence that a space will still support people long after the opening photographs are taken.

For future projects, we want to ask users directly: Do you feel better here? Post-occupancy feedback is one of the clearest ways to understand whether a space is delivering on its promise.

A green plaque is an achievement worth celebrating. But the work of sustainable design continues after certification. Our responsibility is to create interiors that are not only efficient and responsible, but also caring, restorative and alive to the people who use them.

If you’d like to see how this thinking plays out in a residential setting, our Sea Breeze Home project shows the same principles at a smaller scale.

You can also read more about our approach on our healthy and sustainable interior design page.