The first WELL Platinum office in the North

Situated in the brand new Landmark Building in the heart of Manchester’s city-centre, this is a truly people-centric workplace that optimises wellbeing; drenched in natural light, finished in timber and home to hundreds of living plants. The first UK office to simultaneously achieve: WELL Platinum, BREEAM Excellent and SKA Gold in one fit out.

Project partners

  • Graham Lees Partnership
  • Tetris
  • Element Sustainability

Project description

This workplace sets a new standard for staff engagement. It’s where clients set an aspiration for their own offices. It demonstrates the benefits of collaboration, wellbeing and sustainability. This is truly a showcase of sustainable construction, along with workplace wellbeing coming together.

Its all about the people

The fit out was designed with biophilia and people at the centre of the workplace experience. This influenced all major decisions, from layouts to materials, colour, and furniture. All workstations are height adjustable — a workplace trend that has shown proven wellbeing benefits. There are open meeting booths, connected meeting pods (with glass finishes to allow for natural light to flow through) as well as individual calling booths. A desk booking system is in operation, together with sensors to measure space utilisation.

Wellbeing through sustainability

Many of the wellbeing benefits are intrinsically linked with sustainability. Tactile surfaces use natural fibres, living walls remove C02 from the atmosphere and an abundance of natural light helps optimise serotonin levels. 90 per cent of the relevant building area is within 7m of a window, and a circadian lighting system complements the richness of natural light. Air quality and temperature are constantly monitored to optimise the environment.

A sound masking system compliant with BREEAM, WELL and SKA is in place to mask unwanted sounds and provide higher levels of acoustic privacy. Fresh air rates are achieved at 12 litres per second per person.

An organic welcome

The office’s concierge style reception is reminiscent of a high-end hotel. Set against the backdrop of a living wall it sets the tone for wellbeing and inclusivity. Guests can sit around the indoor tree, or even plug their laptop in and work between their meetings. This demonstrates that JLL’s commitment to wellbeing extends to everyone, including visitors and clients.

Nothing going to waste

Recycled products were specified where possible, including the striking table tops and decorative panels, made from recycled yoghurt pots! This shows that sustainability isn’t just good for the environment, but it can look great too. We worked with JLL to re-use existing furniture from their old workspace to reduce the environmental impact of sourcing and manufacturing new furniture. Logistics were carefully managed to help reduce the project’s overall carbon footprint and we also achieved 98 per cent waste recycling on site.

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