The world of commercial architecture opens up a massive range of opportunities. You can create buildings to provide all kinds of value. For example a good design can boost productivity and collaboration. In addition, it can give customers a great experience. You can also create properties that will maximise wellbeing.

One of the most interesting opportunities is the chance to encourage healthier behaviours from the users of the building. All you need to do is focus the design so that they seem like the best option. It can also be a case of making facilities more readily available.

What can you do?

There are lots of different things you can try here. This includes:

Keeping active

Great pieces of commercial architecture can encourage people to be more active. This could be by providing a gym, bicycle storage, and other facilities. It can be a really good idea to get people to try to move away from driving to and from work too. What you should do is make it more rewarding to be active.

Connecting with nature

One of the best ways to improve wellbeing is to get people to choose to spend more time outside in the fresh air. A commercial building can do this in several ways. For starters you could connect the building to nature with good orientation, large windows, and great landscaping. You can then also create outdoor spaces for breaks, lunch, and even meetings.

Eating

A good diet can be crucial for wellbeing. However, people can find it tricky to eat well while they are at work. You can help to change this in a number of ways though, including by providing facilities so people can prepare meals rather than buying fast food. A nice communal dining area can work wonders too.

A great example

At Coffey Architects we understand how much value good commercial design can offer. One of our projects was even recently featured on the Building Design website for this very reason. Nexus provides a great example of how a building can encourage healthier behaviour.

What we did here was create a sculptural central stair. It is at the heart of the building with a zenith rooflight to make the whole atrium light and welcoming. What this does is actually encourage people to take the stairs instead of relying on the lifts. This simple thing can make people choose healthier behaviour and be more active each day when they are at work.

The design also has a reception, cafe area, and courtyards. The goal here is to support work and socialising to improve wellbeing.

You can find out more about the project here.

Ask us to create your commercial architecture

You can rely on Coffey Architects for any kind of commercial project. We have the skills to deliver HQs, retail space, office blocks, and more. Every aspect of a design has careful consideration. We also work to maximise the value, even for low cost projects.

So, if you want to create something with us, please get in touch. You can also browse our other commercial architecture projects for more ideas.