Member Article

Inside the City office that's the first in Europe to be certified for employee wellness

The newly redeveloped London office of engineering firm Cundall has become the first project in Europe to be recognised for its human-centred design approach.

One Carter Lane, which is located in the City of London, has achieved a WELL Certification through the WELL Building Standard after seven years of research and development by the engineers to ensure that wellness of the building’s occupants was central to the development of the property.

Features including an active green wall and a layout that maximises natural light draw on medical and scientific research, and combine with automatic light, air and water sensors to monitor atmospheric quality.

The building’s innovations, which also include more commonplace amenities such as bike racks, showers and the ready availability of fresh fruit, helped the development to attain a Gold level WELL Certification making it the first in Europe to do so.

Measured on elements including air, water, light, nourishment, fitness, comfort and mind, the certification aims to get developers to consider the effect of the built environment on personal wellbeing and incorporate it into a building’s design.

Alan Fogarty, Sustainability Partner at Cundall commented that more and more businesses are considering wellness when designing their offices, and that the move can help firm’s to retain good staff.

He said: “Many businesses are seeing WELL as providing a means of demonstrating the quality of office space to attract and retain good staff. At Cundall, we have taken the refurbishment of our own London office and used it as an exemplar project, not only for ourselves, but also for our clients and collaborators.

“We’ve created a living, working example of how the WELL Building Standard™ can be applied, without breaking the bank.”

Designed in conjunction with architects Studio Ben Allen, the 15,400 sq ft fit-out has also incorporated recycled Bolon flooring and Baux acoustic panels, to both improve the general experience of the development and push its sustainable credentials as well.

Cundall’s Managing Partner, Tomas Neeson, said the move was part of the engineering firm’s efforts towards ‘sustainable best practice’ which incorporates environmental considerations in tandem with employee wellbeing.

He added: “We see achieving WELL Certification as the latest step in our commitment to sustainable best practice, spearheaded by becoming the first consultants in the world to gain One Planet Company status.”