Investa’s Barrack Place awarded WELL Precertification

Investa’s Barrack Place awarded WELL Precertification

26 May 2017

Barrack Place has been awarded Australia’s first WELL Core & Shell Precertification at the Gold level by the International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™).

Administered by IWBI, WELL is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and wellness through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. Precertification marks an important step in Investa’s goal of full WELL Core & Shell Certification for the Building on completion near the end of 2018.

Located at 151 Clarence Street, Sydney, on the southern end of Martin Place, Barrack Place comprises 22,000 square metres of A-Grade office space and retail over 18 levels.

Investa engaged with IWBI over a year ago to explore how WELL Core & Shell Certification could be implemented in the building design at Barrack Place.

Shen Chiu, Senior Development Manager at Investa, said that being the first Australian development to achieve precertification involved upgrading the building systems and improving the design, which is aligned with IOF’s commitment to designing and building for the long term benefit of tenants.

“New buildings provide a unique opportunity to deliver a healthy place to work from the ground up. The WELL Building Standard allows us to go one step further, by incorporating the science of wellness into the fabric of the building and locking in these benefits for decades to come,” said Mr Chiu.

“While individual tenancies within buildings have achieved WELL Certification in Australia, we are leading the way with the first WELL Core & Shell Precertification in a new development. Achieving this will allow tenants at Barrack Place to leverage certain aspects of the building’s design and services when doing their own space planning and our team will continue to manage the implementation to ensure it is carried through to WELL Certification.”

WELL Certification is fast becoming the new global standard in good building design, although still a newcomer to Australian design. Currently, almost 400 projects are registered or certified through the WELL Building Standard globally.

More tenants are becoming aware of the benefits of WELL Certification, as the health and well-being of their staff becomes an ever greater factor in their office space planning.

Dr Marianne Foley, Australasian Consulting Sector Leader at Arup, a pre-committed tenant at Barrack Place, has praised Investa’s initiative in achieving this WELL Precertification.

“We are pursuing a WELL rating for our tenancy also and Investa’s commitment to the WELL Core and Shell Gold Precertification has significantly helped us in achieving this goal and further demonstrates the quality of the building,” she said.