Healthy workplaces produce employees who work smarter – and longer

Productivity goes 'through the roof' when companies invest in building design that improves their workers' physical and mental health

The architects behind Medibank Place in Melbourne's Docklands had numerous design aspirations but there was one key point. Australia's largest health insurers wanted their new head office to be one of the world's healthiest buildings.

"Medibank CEO George Savvides said to me, 'I want a living, breathing, healthy building,'" says Rob Backhouse, managing director of Hassell Architects and one of the principal designers of Medibank Place. "In essence, our brief was to take Medibank's core purpose and mission of promoting good health and express that physically in a building."