Wellness is emerging as a key design consideration for workspace developers and occupiers.
Architects are working with anthropologists to understand how placemaking can combine building type, setting, light, and air treatment systems to create quality places to work. Not to be confused with BREEAM or LEED certification, the International Well Building Institute administers a certification process, based on seven concepts: air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind.
Wellness is something that has been close to my heart for more than 30 years. In the 1980s, when I joined Strutt & Parker to work on business park development with Raymond Mould and Patrick Vaughan at Arlington, business parks were about wellness and lifestyle, and were sought after by the new technology firms of the time. Cities were unpopular and seen as less secure for women who worked late. Business parks were not only pleasant but accessible at a time when public infrastructure was failing.
There is today a move back towards urban centres for lifestyle, cultural and environmental reasons, all of which were not part of the thinking those many years ago. We understand ourselves a lot better today and, of course, technology has changed the way we work.
Last week, Strutt & Parker launched a major study into what London’s office employees want from their office and wider urban environment. It shows that there is a need for healthy, varied workspaces and that this presents a challenge to occupiers.
The advantages of open-plan are clear – it provides high-density workspaces that are efficient to develop and maintain. Yet, in a city such as London, where staff costs dwarf office leasing costs, staff productivity must come first and so a variety of spaces will be needed.
The office Strutt & Parker has just opened in South Kensington includes hot desking facilities, standing desks and communal working spaces. As I am told by my ULI colleagues in the US, sitting is the new smoking.
We need to ensure that today’s office workstations foster a more communal environment, as exemplified by Google’s space in King’s Cross. We are supporting the new Crick Institute at St Pancras, which enables staff to interact as they search for solutions to scientific problems.
Although we are already seeing this “workspace diversity” model being taken up by some large occupiers, it is a challenge for smaller firms. Investors and landlords will have to consider how to provide offices that allow occupiers with small floorplates to achieve workspace wellness and diversity.
However, I think there are a lot more investors now who are attuned to these changes and happy to invest. Sovereign wealth entities and family offices are interested. They are seasoned players looking at longevity, and are prepared to pay for it.
Take Grosvenor and its attitude to placemaking and cultural changes. Its behaviour has been exemplary. And people will remember the work pioneered by office workplace planners DEGW in the 1980s, which became central to the research carried out by Sir Stuart Lipton on the spatial design of his projects. It is interesting to note that he is now looking at wellness certification for his future projects. Atelier Ten is working with Google to achieve the same at St Pancras.
I think other investors will follow suit. We at Strutt & Parker have a new client that is looking at creating an investment advisory business and wants to ensure that part of its income goes towards putting something back into the community, both environmentally and from a civic standpoint. It believes this sort of investing will create better value in the long term.
After all this, you may wish to find out more. So if you fancy reading something different over the summer holidays, try Cognitive Architecture by Ann Sussman and Justin Hollander.
Andy Martin is senior partner at Strutt & Parker
