Cundall London office becomes first project in Europe to achieve WELL Certification

International multi-disciplinary engineering company, Cundall’s new London office at One Carter Lane is the first building in the UK and Europe to achieve WELL Certification through the WELL Building Standard™ (WELL).

Cundall seized the opportunity to pursue WELL for the fit-out of its new 15,400ft2 CAT A London office, which became WELL Certified™ at the Gold level, creating a practical expression of the company’s long-standing focus on sustainability and well-being. This achievement was made possible by the close collaboration between Cundall and their architects, Studio Ben Allen, working through the details of this relatively new standard and applying its features in a short design period. Key suppliers for products that could contribute towards satisfying the features of WELL, like recycled Bolon flooring and Baux acoustic panels, were identified and very supportive in providing the levels of information required for the standard.

Cundall London Office
Image credit: Dirk Lindner.

Created through seven years of rigorous research and development, working with leading physicians, scientists, and industry professionals, WELL is a performance-based certification system that marries best practices in design and construction with evidence-based medical and scientific research. Cundall’s London office earned the distinction based on seven categories of building performance—air, water, light, nourishment, fitness, comfort and mind.

Says Alan Fogarty, Sustainability Partner at Cundall, “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. Our figures show a total uplift in the project costs of £200 per head. We are putting in place control measures to see exactly how the WELL building elements will improve staff welfare against our old office. However anecdotal feedback from our staff has confirmed the new office as a great hit.”

WELL is designed to work harmoniously with other green building certifications, and achieving WELL Certification does not preclude a building from gaining additional sustainability credentials. One Carter Lane has achieved BREEAM and SKA ratings, Excellent and Gold respectively.

Image credit: Dirk Lindner