BuroHappold Engineering announced that it has been awarded WELL Certification at the Gold level for its office in Warsaw by the International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™). The prestigious distinction was awarded through IWBI’s WELL Building Standard™ (WELL™), which is the premier building standard to focus on enhancing people’s health and wellness through the buildings where we live, work and play.
BuroHappold Engineering office is located in Warsaw, Twarda 18 Street, in Spektrum Tower, a refurbished building. Taking an innovative approach, the company designed an effective office space with a focus on making their employees’ health and well-being a top priority, at the same time the space becoming a ‘living lab’ test environment for cutting-edge office design.
Created through seven years of rigorous research and development working with leading physicians, scientists, and industry professionals, the WELL Building Standard is a performance-based certification system that marries best practices in design and construction with evidence-based scientific research. BuroHappold’s Warsaw office earned the distinction based on seven categories of building performance — Air, Water, Light, Nourishment, Fitness, Comfort and Mind —and achieved a Gold level rating.
Ian Booth, BuroHappold Engineering Partner said: “BuroHappold provides solutions that are end-user oriented. Our new office is proudly being used as a showcase for health and well-being in an open-plan office environment. In addition, the survey results demonstrate that people feel good in our space and that is the best proof the project has been successful. We are delighted to have achieved WELL Certified Gold as proof of our focus on human health and wellness.”
All the project features helped BuroHappold’s Warsaw office achieve its WELL Certified Gold rating. The aspects that both helped receive this great accolade as well as are enjoyed by our employees (as declared at the post occupancy perception survey) are lighting and acoustics. As building services engineers, BuroHappold understands the importance of good acoustics and their benefits to health and comfort. The Warsaw office has exceeded European best practice in terms of occupant satisfaction, according to the Comfortmeter methodology 66 percent of employees are happy about sound level (as compared to 59 percent best practice benchmark). What is more, all the lighting solutions are highly appreciated by employees – 85 percent are satisfied with the light overall, exceeding European best practice benchmark (78 percent).
“We are excited to congratulate BuroHappold for achieving the first WELL Certification in Poland,” said Rick Fedrizzi, Chairman and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute. “Through its Gold level WELL Certified office in Warsaw, BuroHappold has demonstrated outstanding leadership by supporting healthier people through better buildings and helping to advance this movement in Poland and globally.”
BuroHappold Engineering has applied the most innovative technical solutions in 8 areas. For the visual comfort of the employees the new healthy office features dimmable LED lighting with pre-programmed light level for every workstation. To enable office users to breathe clean air, BuroHappold has ensured generous volumes of fresh air supply based on CO2 concentration. For optimised temperature a highly efficient system allows for top thermal comfort with full control of temperature in 30 zones. Well connected to the city, the office is an enjoyable space with natural colours and materials. To ensure savings water and energy consumption is extensively monitored. Also, for the sake of the budget and the environment, significant part of existing interior features has been re-used.
WELL is grounded in a body of evidence-based research that explores the connection between the buildings where we spend approximately 90 percent of our time, and the health and wellness impacts on us as occupants of these buildings. To be awarded WELL Certification by IWBI, BuroHappold’s Warsaw office underwent rigorous testing and a final evaluation carried out by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), which is the third-party certification body for WELL, to ensure it met all WELL Certified™ Gold performance requirements.
