At Godrej South Estate, new clean-air systems and “Breathe a Little Deeper” panel showcase how real estate can hard-wire health into urban home

With Delhi’s air once again at “hazardous” levels, Godrej Properties is making a bid to recast housing design as a frontline defence against pollution, positioning wellness not as a lifestyle extra but as core infrastructure.

At its Godrej South Estate project in Okhla, the company has rolled out a suite of clean-air technologies and design features that it says are already improving outdoor Air Quality Index (AQI) readings inside the premises. The initiative formed the backdrop to a panel discussion, “Breathe a Little Deeper”, that brought together doctors, policy experts and parent representatives to argue that developers must share responsibility for cleaner urban living.

Geetika Trehan, CEO – North Zone, Godrej Properties, said air quality is now shaping home-buying choices as much as location or price. “At Godrej Properties, we believe wellness should be built into the very fabric of design, not treated as an add-on. Our goal is simple: create spaces that make families feel healthier, happier, and experience Everyday Joy in their daily lives,” she said.

At Godrej South Estate, the company has deployed Centralised Treated Fresh Air (CTFA) systems that draw in outdoor air and filter out fine particles, gases and microbes to maintain oxygen-rich indoor environments. Mechanical Filter-less Fresh Air (MFFA) units have been installed across common areas to cut PM2.5 levels and lift outdoor AQI, while double-glazed windows and dense green buffers are intended to reduce noise and act as natural filters.

Gaurav Vasudev, President, Globaltech Consultancy & Engineering (GEPS), which has partnered on the project, described such wellness-led housing as aligned with ESG goals and India’s sustainability agenda. The combination of CTFA and MFFA, he noted, is designed to “actively protect health while minimising environmental impact”.

Medical experts on the panel underlined that while technology can reduce exposure, behaviour change inside homes remains vital. Dr Nikhil Modi, Senior Consultant, Pulmonology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, advised families to maintain air purifiers properly, avoid dry dusting and schedule outdoor activity away from peak pollution hours. “Delhi’s air crisis demands immediate action at home,” he said, adding that masks, indoor workouts and stronger immunity through diet and hydration are now basic safeguards.

Parents’ representatives stressed the daily toll of pollution on children. Aprajita Gautam, President of the Delhi Parents Association, said rising pollution had meant missed school days and curtailed playtime. She argued that clean air in neighbourhoods could not be left to the government alone. “The current situation demands that citizens, housing societies, schools, even real estate developers, own the streets and nurture the neighbourhood for better air quality,” she said, calling for more real-time AQI displays, plantations and green buffers in residential projects.

From a policy perspective, the message was that indoor solutions cannot be a permanent substitute for cleaner city air. Mohammad Rafiuddin, Programme Lead at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), said that while purification systems provide “short-term relief”, their impact and affordability depend on cutting emissions at source. He urged a twin track of strong outdoor pollution control and mainstreaming of health-centred housing through design norms, innovation and policy support.

Godrej Properties, which has pledged that all its projects will be third-party certified green buildings, is using Godrej South Estate to demonstrate how air-quality technology, architecture and landscaping can be integrated into a single wellness-oriented blueprint. The company has topped national residential sales rankings by value in FY24 and FY25 and is a founding partner of the Sustainable Housing Leadership Consortium, which promotes greener construction practices.

Industry observers say the push towards “wellness by design” reflects a wider shift in urban real estate, as buyers increasingly seek homes that do more than shut out smog. For Godrej Properties, the wager is that in a city where stepping outside has become a health risk, demonstrable gains in AQI within housing complexes can set a new benchmark for what constitutes premium urban living.