“The executive director of Lake Nona
wellness community talks to Magali
Robathan about tapping into the
latest innovations and technology
to create healthy environments ”
In the planned Florida wellness community of Lake Nona, stands what looks like an ordinary – if impressive – clapboard home, surrounded by palm trees and plants. The only clue that something a bit special is going on inside, is a sign inviting people look around.
This is WHIT, a prototype Wellness Home built on Innovation and Technology, where entrepreneurs test concepts that could transform the way we live – from a Wellness Kitchen and Sleep Sanctuary bedroom to green walls and View Smart Windows that tint automatically in response to light levels outside to reduce glare and keep the home cool.
It uses anti-microbial and mould resistant cork flooring and low VOC paint, has a state-of-the-art Technogym gym and a room for meditation and relaxation, featuring technologies to clear your mind and refocus your brain.
“We spend more than 90 per cent of our lives indoors, yet so many of the designs of our homes and the spaces we occupy haven’t been planned with health and wellbeing in mind,” says Gloria Caulfield, executive director of the Lake Nona Institute, speaking to me from her Florida home. “We have to pay attention to these spaces by thinking about how we optimise our health within them.
“The idea of WHIT is to create a kind of living lab that focuses on optimising health and wellbeing within the living environment.”
LAKE NONA The WHIT could also serve as inspiration for any spa or wellness facility focused on a guest’s health. It sits within Lake Nona in Orlando, which is in itself at the forefront of healthy living. Established more than two decades ago, Lake Nona is a 17 square mile community created with the vision of building the ideal place to inspire human potential through innovation. “It’s about learning to live well, and about prevention,” says Caulfield.
The population has steadily grown and now tens of thousands of people live, work and study in Lake Nona. The community is also home to the Lake Nona Institute, a non-profit organisation which aims to inspire healthy communities, the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, where executives and athletes learn how to improve their health, and the USTA National Campus – one of the world’s largest tennis training and tournament campuses. A wellness study, the Lake Nona Life Project, is investigating what makes happy and successful communities, and a huge fitness and wellness club is currently under construction.
THE KITCHEN Caulfield and the team at the Lake Nona Institute have partnered with a range of exciting architects, inventors and entrepreneurs to explore how our homes can support us in living our best, healthiest lives. “It’s about thinking about your residence as the ultimate health coach.”
Inside, there’s a Wellness Kitchen developed in partnership with wellness architect Veronica Schreibeis Smith. It has a state-of-the-art hydroponic kitchen garden allowing people to grow and pick their own fruit and vegetables, UV germicidal lighting technology to kill bacteria and viruses on surfaces without the need for cleaning products, and an interactive digital cooktop that syncs to the fridge and suggests meals based on your preferences.
“The kitchen is the heart of the home, and one of the most important components of a healthy house,” says Caulfield.
THE LIGHTING Another innovator that changed the way Caulfield views the indoor environments is Fred Maxik, founder of Lighting Science. A former NASA scientist, Maxik – who’s responsible for all the lighting in WHIT – views lighting as a nutrient for our bodies.
“As humans, we take our daily clock reset signal from the qualities of light surrounding us,” he explains. “If the wrong signal (or light) is received at an inappropriate time of day, we throw our systems off.”
The company produces LED bulbs which eliminate certain wavelengths of light that disrupt circadian rhythms. Its GoodNight bulb, for example, greatly reduces melatonin-suppressing blue light. Other bulbs aid alertness or promote healthy plant growth. Most recently, its Healthe Cleanse sanitising product line, capable of killing viruses and bacteria in the built environment, is being used across the US following COVID-19.
Other lighting innovations in WHIT include the Cleanse air cleaning pendant light, that improves air quality and features circadian lighting technology; infrared therapy floor lamps that provide natural health benefits for inflammation, pain relief and cardiovascular diseases; and a sensing pendant light that can track and provide security information about the people coming in and out of the house.
Circadian lighting to help regulate sleep patterns features heavily in WHIT’s Sleep Sanctuary bedroom, along with an array of other innovations from air purifiers and folders to pillows that deliver music and snoring solutions (see above).
HOME LIFE I finish the interview by asking Caulfield how working on WHIT has influenced her own home and the way she lives? Has she incorporated any of the technologies into her life?
Her answer shows that sometimes it’s the simple things that can make a big difference. “Several years ago, one of our entrepreneurs came to Lake Nona and gave a presentation saying that after World War II, around 70 per cent of people’s produce was grown in their own garden. They had fresh fruit and vegetables doorsteps away and they canned what they needed for the winter. I’d always been interested in healthy eating, but that really resonated with me.
“I started to learn more about growing produce – you can grow a lot on a modest piece of land – and I’ve taken that into my own home and life,” she says, adding that a hydroponic garden is an innovation people can tap into.
Home
wellness
innovations
SERENITY COVE
A space designed for meditation and relaxation, this room features technologies including:
• Innerspace Zero Gravity Chair
Reduces body inflammation, helps with chronic pain and improves sleep
• Deepak Chopra Dream Weaver
Uses light and sound pulses at specified frequencies to help the user reach a variety of interesting and beneficial states of consciousness
• Neuroverse Brain Station
Wearable, intuitive EEG system that can assess mental function, featuring neurocognitive games, mindfulness training, neurofeedback and biometric control and sleep tracking
• HumanCharger
A bright light therapy device that can be carried around in your pocket for use anywhere
SLEEP SANCTUARY
A partnership between SleepScore Labs and WHIT, the Sleep Sanctuary features products curated and validated by scientists including:
•
Foobot Indoor Air Quality Monitor
Designed to show you what indoor air quality looks like and highlight pollutants
• Sound+Sleep – Sleep Sound Machine
Featuring Adaptive Sound, emits soothing white noise, dynamically adjusting the volume based on ambient levels in your room
• Alen – BreatheSmart FIT50 HEPA Air Purifier + HEPA-Pure
Eliminates toxins, allergens, bacteria, mould, dust and airborne irritants
• SleepScore Max
SleepScore Max Sleep Improvement System
• Dreampad Medium Support Pillow with Music & Sleep Technology
Delivers music through the pillow via a gentle vibration (that only the user can hear) for a restful night’s sleep.
• Lighting Science’s GoodNight bulb
Reduces melatonin-suppressing blue light
Magali Robathan is an editor of Spa Business’ sister magazine, Well Home (www.wellhomeglobal.com)
| [email protected]
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2021 issue 3
Editor's letter: All about the people
With global staff shortages threatening to stall economic recovery, it’s time to reboot our commitment to driving improvements in pay and working conditions across the spa and wellness industry
Spa people: Dr Mark Hyman
Dr Mark Hyman MD believes functional medicine has the power to be life-changing in the health and wellbeing of patients.
New opening: Six Senses Shaharut
Six Senses has opened the doors to its new 60-key retreat in Israel’s southern Negev Desert, complete with a 1,900sq m, two-level spa and wellness sanctuary
New opening: QC NY
A 74,000sq ft Italian day spa has opened on New York’s Governors Island after a US$50m investment and seven years of planning, building and restoration.
Interview: Kenneth Ryan
We talk to the global head of spa at Marriott International about navigating the global lockdown, re-imagining the company's brand portfolio and what it will take to succeed post-COVID-19
Sponsored: Time out
Answering a growing demand
for non-invasive, anti-ageing skin
care, Comfort Zone is relaunching
its Sublime Skin line with a new
filler-like natural formula that
reverses cellular degeneration
Research: Total impact
Latest ISPA report considers the economic fallout of the pandemic and the spa industry's road to recovery
Sponsored: Gharieni Group
CEO Sammy Gharieni talks about his relentless drive
to deliver innovative products to underpin operators’ success
Analysis: Role model
What business models are showing the most potential in the wellness industry? Lyndsay Madden Nadeau shares her insights
Interview: Lorenzo Giannuzzi
The hospitality veteran dreamed of reinventing an historic Italian palazzo as a world-class medical spa. Lisa Starr went to find out more
Sponsored: TechnoAlpin
Snow rooms are creating a ‘wow’ factor for customers,
while reducing operating costs in the delivery of hot and cold
experiences
Interview: Gloria Caulfield
The executive director of Lake Nona wellness community talks about tapping into the latest tech to create healthy living environments
Software: Revenue management
How software suppliers have been supporting spas to get savvy with yield management since the pandemic began
Promotion: Iyashi Dôme
Iyashi Dôme’s touchless infrared tech is the perfect investment for the post-lockdown world, says Florent Cornelis
Contrast therapy, based on the alternation of hot and cold rituals, has become one of the
most valued practices in the fields of wellness and recovery. [more...]
+ More featured suppliers
COMPANY PROFILES
TLEE Spas + Wellness
Founded in 2010 by industry visionary Tracy Lee, TLEE Spas + Wellness is a globally acclaimed spa an [more...]
Borghese Roma
Borghese is an Italian luxury skincare brand founded in 1957 by Princess Marcella Borghese. [more...]
“The executive director of Lake Nona
wellness community talks to Magali
Robathan about tapping into the
latest innovations and technology
to create healthy environments ”
In the planned Florida wellness community of Lake Nona, stands what looks like an ordinary – if impressive – clapboard home, surrounded by palm trees and plants. The only clue that something a bit special is going on inside, is a sign inviting people look around.
This is WHIT, a prototype Wellness Home built on Innovation and Technology, where entrepreneurs test concepts that could transform the way we live – from a Wellness Kitchen and Sleep Sanctuary bedroom to green walls and View Smart Windows that tint automatically in response to light levels outside to reduce glare and keep the home cool.
It uses anti-microbial and mould resistant cork flooring and low VOC paint, has a state-of-the-art Technogym gym and a room for meditation and relaxation, featuring technologies to clear your mind and refocus your brain.
“We spend more than 90 per cent of our lives indoors, yet so many of the designs of our homes and the spaces we occupy haven’t been planned with health and wellbeing in mind,” says Gloria Caulfield, executive director of the Lake Nona Institute, speaking to me from her Florida home. “We have to pay attention to these spaces by thinking about how we optimise our health within them.
“The idea of WHIT is to create a kind of living lab that focuses on optimising health and wellbeing within the living environment.”
LAKE NONA The WHIT could also serve as inspiration for any spa or wellness facility focused on a guest’s health. It sits within Lake Nona in Orlando, which is in itself at the forefront of healthy living. Established more than two decades ago, Lake Nona is a 17 square mile community created with the vision of building the ideal place to inspire human potential through innovation. “It’s about learning to live well, and about prevention,” says Caulfield.
The population has steadily grown and now tens of thousands of people live, work and study in Lake Nona. The community is also home to the Lake Nona Institute, a non-profit organisation which aims to inspire healthy communities, the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, where executives and athletes learn how to improve their health, and the USTA National Campus – one of the world’s largest tennis training and tournament campuses. A wellness study, the Lake Nona Life Project, is investigating what makes happy and successful communities, and a huge fitness and wellness club is currently under construction.
THE KITCHEN Caulfield and the team at the Lake Nona Institute have partnered with a range of exciting architects, inventors and entrepreneurs to explore how our homes can support us in living our best, healthiest lives. “It’s about thinking about your residence as the ultimate health coach.”
Inside, there’s a Wellness Kitchen developed in partnership with wellness architect Veronica Schreibeis Smith. It has a state-of-the-art hydroponic kitchen garden allowing people to grow and pick their own fruit and vegetables, UV germicidal lighting technology to kill bacteria and viruses on surfaces without the need for cleaning products, and an interactive digital cooktop that syncs to the fridge and suggests meals based on your preferences.
“The kitchen is the heart of the home, and one of the most important components of a healthy house,” says Caulfield.
THE LIGHTING Another innovator that changed the way Caulfield views the indoor environments is Fred Maxik, founder of Lighting Science. A former NASA scientist, Maxik – who’s responsible for all the lighting in WHIT – views lighting as a nutrient for our bodies.
“As humans, we take our daily clock reset signal from the qualities of light surrounding us,” he explains. “If the wrong signal (or light) is received at an inappropriate time of day, we throw our systems off.”
The company produces LED bulbs which eliminate certain wavelengths of light that disrupt circadian rhythms. Its GoodNight bulb, for example, greatly reduces melatonin-suppressing blue light. Other bulbs aid alertness or promote healthy plant growth. Most recently, its Healthe Cleanse sanitising product line, capable of killing viruses and bacteria in the built environment, is being used across the US following COVID-19.
Other lighting innovations in WHIT include the Cleanse air cleaning pendant light, that improves air quality and features circadian lighting technology; infrared therapy floor lamps that provide natural health benefits for inflammation, pain relief and cardiovascular diseases; and a sensing pendant light that can track and provide security information about the people coming in and out of the house.
Circadian lighting to help regulate sleep patterns features heavily in WHIT’s Sleep Sanctuary bedroom, along with an array of other innovations from air purifiers and folders to pillows that deliver music and snoring solutions (see above).
HOME LIFE I finish the interview by asking Caulfield how working on WHIT has influenced her own home and the way she lives? Has she incorporated any of the technologies into her life?
Her answer shows that sometimes it’s the simple things that can make a big difference. “Several years ago, one of our entrepreneurs came to Lake Nona and gave a presentation saying that after World War II, around 70 per cent of people’s produce was grown in their own garden. They had fresh fruit and vegetables doorsteps away and they canned what they needed for the winter. I’d always been interested in healthy eating, but that really resonated with me.
“I started to learn more about growing produce – you can grow a lot on a modest piece of land – and I’ve taken that into my own home and life,” she says, adding that a hydroponic garden is an innovation people can tap into.
Home
wellness
innovations
SERENITY COVE
A space designed for meditation and relaxation, this room features technologies including:
• Innerspace Zero Gravity Chair
Reduces body inflammation, helps with chronic pain and improves sleep
• Deepak Chopra Dream Weaver
Uses light and sound pulses at specified frequencies to help the user reach a variety of interesting and beneficial states of consciousness
• Neuroverse Brain Station
Wearable, intuitive EEG system that can assess mental function, featuring neurocognitive games, mindfulness training, neurofeedback and biometric control and sleep tracking
• HumanCharger
A bright light therapy device that can be carried around in your pocket for use anywhere
SLEEP SANCTUARY
A partnership between SleepScore Labs and WHIT, the Sleep Sanctuary features products curated and validated by scientists including:
•
Foobot Indoor Air Quality Monitor
Designed to show you what indoor air quality looks like and highlight pollutants
• Sound+Sleep – Sleep Sound Machine
Featuring Adaptive Sound, emits soothing white noise, dynamically adjusting the volume based on ambient levels in your room
• Alen – BreatheSmart FIT50 HEPA Air Purifier + HEPA-Pure
Eliminates toxins, allergens, bacteria, mould, dust and airborne irritants
• SleepScore Max
SleepScore Max Sleep Improvement System
• Dreampad Medium Support Pillow with Music & Sleep Technology
Delivers music through the pillow via a gentle vibration (that only the user can hear) for a restful night’s sleep.
• Lighting Science’s GoodNight bulb
Reduces melatonin-suppressing blue light
Magali Robathan is an editor of Spa Business’ sister magazine, Well Home (www.wellhomeglobal.com)
| [email protected]
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2021 issue 3
Editor's letter: All about the people
With global staff shortages threatening to stall economic recovery, it’s time to reboot our commitment to driving improvements in pay and working conditions across the spa and wellness industry
Spa people: Dr Mark Hyman
Dr Mark Hyman MD believes functional medicine has the power to be life-changing in the health and wellbeing of patients.
New opening: Six Senses Shaharut
Six Senses has opened the doors to its new 60-key retreat in Israel’s southern Negev Desert, complete with a 1,900sq m, two-level spa and wellness sanctuary
New opening: QC NY
A 74,000sq ft Italian day spa has opened on New York’s Governors Island after a US$50m investment and seven years of planning, building and restoration.
Interview: Kenneth Ryan
We talk to the global head of spa at Marriott International about navigating the global lockdown, re-imagining the company's brand portfolio and what it will take to succeed post-COVID-19
Sponsored: Time out
Answering a growing demand
for non-invasive, anti-ageing skin
care, Comfort Zone is relaunching
its Sublime Skin line with a new
filler-like natural formula that
reverses cellular degeneration
Research: Total impact
Latest ISPA report considers the economic fallout of the pandemic and the spa industry's road to recovery
Sponsored: Gharieni Group
CEO Sammy Gharieni talks about his relentless drive
to deliver innovative products to underpin operators’ success
Analysis: Role model
What business models are showing the most potential in the wellness industry? Lyndsay Madden Nadeau shares her insights
Interview: Lorenzo Giannuzzi
The hospitality veteran dreamed of reinventing an historic Italian palazzo as a world-class medical spa. Lisa Starr went to find out more
Sponsored: TechnoAlpin
Snow rooms are creating a ‘wow’ factor for customers,
while reducing operating costs in the delivery of hot and cold
experiences
Interview: Gloria Caulfield
The executive director of Lake Nona wellness community talks about tapping into the latest tech to create healthy living environments
Software: Revenue management
How software suppliers have been supporting spas to get savvy with yield management since the pandemic began
Promotion: Iyashi Dôme
Iyashi Dôme’s touchless infrared tech is the perfect investment for the post-lockdown world, says Florent Cornelis
Bel Hotel Oléron Thalasso and Spa, MGallery Collection has opened on the French island Île
d'Oléron off the country’s western coast with a 27-treatment-room spa.
Manipulating the gut microbiome could become a powerful tool for preserving brain health and
resilience as people age, according to research led by Professor Paola Tognini, a neuroscientist
at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy.
Jessica Sloyan, a wellness operations and training expert, has established an independent
private training academy to provide professional qualifications for practitioners looking to offer
immersive wellness experiences.
The International Spa Association (ISPA) has published its full 2026 US Spa Industry Study,
providing further insights into the region’s total US$1 billion (€855 million, £780 million)
industry revenue increase from 2024 to 2025.
Ameyalli, the 78-acre wellbeing resort and residential community in Midway in Utah, US, has
broken ground on phase two of the hot spring development – the Ameyalli Resort and Spa –
which is due to open in 2028.
TLee Spas and Wellness has revealed the design concept for a high-tech spa with body
mapping scanners to improve public health, for AI company Midjourney.
Gran Hotel Taoro in northern Tenerife, Spain, has completed the final phase of its three-year
renovation with the debut of its Sandára Wellness Centre.
Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa, the spa business with more than 650 locations across
the US and Canada, has appointed franchise expert Carrie Walsh as CEO as the company plans
to expand.
Synergy – The Retreat Show, the global trade show for retreats, has launched a global research
initiative that will provide insights into the retreat sector from both consumer and industry
perspectives.
Contrast therapy, based on the alternation of hot and cold rituals, has become one of the
most valued practices in the fields of wellness and recovery. [more...]
+ More featured suppliers
COMPANY PROFILES
TLEE Spas + Wellness Founded in 2010 by industry visionary Tracy Lee, TLEE Spas + Wellness is a globally acclaimed spa an [more...]
