Putting the WELL into Bloom Clerkenwell

Sweco partners with HB Reavis to deliver the first UK building to achieve IWBI’s Platinum certification for core & shell

We’re proud to have helped the Bloom Clerkenwell (Farringdon West) development double up on building excellence recognition – as one of London’s newest work, retail and amenity space adds WELL Platinum certification to its BREEAM Outstanding accreditation.

All photos courtesy of HB Reavis and Peter Cook

When HB Reavis set out to build Bloom, occupant wellbeing and sustainability were the core non-negotiables that would shape the project. Adopting the WELL Building Standard certification allows a developer to put people at the centre of design and operation, and also helps ESG reporting and the GRESB score. The robust third-party verification in the WELL Building Standard ultimately ensures, and recognises, the highest quality indoor environment for the incoming tenants or occupants.

WELL accreditation was an emerging concept back in 2018 when Sweco was initially asked to support HB Reavis on these two cornerstones – but as one of the early adopters and champions of the standards set by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) in terms of achieving the highest quality user experience in the built environment, our building performance team was perfectly placed to help.

Diaa Bahopia, Senior Sustainability Consultant at Sweco UK reflects…

“The WELL Building Standard made its way into UK in 2017, there were very few consultants or WELL APs who were actively assisting projects to adopt it. Sweco undertook a robust research-based approach as early as 2016 to understand the WELL Building Standard in the UK context, which added to our ability to deliver certifications that add value to projects by working closely with the client and the design team to ensure all proposals are aligned to the highest quality benchmarks.”

From the outset, we provided guidance not only on the requirements to get to WELL Platinum level, but the practical detailed and continuous guidance too when it came to creating evidencing templates and proposal documents that we kew would be needed for evaluation at the end of the build.

As is common in our sustainability and wellbeing certification work, we gathered and reviewed reams of internal documents to help HB Reavis navigate what we labelled the ‘Route to Platinum’ as we mapped it out for them, in addition to the journey to BREEAM Outstanding. We then assisted them in filling out the necessary information as we progressed.

HB Reavis project director Gabriela Guizzo explains some of the challenges posed by Bloom…

“There were challenges regarding the air quality equipment and other systems because some of the equipment we chose is not commonly used in the market yet. We also had to ensure there was holistic understanding of the requirements and deliverables needed to achieve the highest level of certifications.

The communal terrace was definitely the most important aspect of the build for us. We always wanted to deliver this garden terrace for Bloom users, but with such different requirements between BREEAM and WELL in terms of irrigation and landscaping, the team really had to put their heads together to design a garden terrace that not only complies with both certifications but also creates the amazing space we wanted for our occupiers.”

The real key to success was that Sweco’s team, having closely researched WELL and its requirements in its earliest days, knew all the while what the IWBI would need as evidence for certification, and how they would ultimately need it to be presented.

By creating a bespoke suite of auditing collateral in-house at Sweco, the team were able to make the whole exercise – over 5 years – easily manageable to reassure the client, for every wellbeing criteria at every stage of Bloom’s development.

Diaa continues…

“We don’t approach certifications in silo – it’s certainly not just a box-ticking exercise for us and our clients. Instead, we immerse ourselves into the logic and behind the criteria of the certifications’ criteria with a view to shaping features and overall strategies that add value to the project.

In short, rather than view them as the end goal, we use their benchmarks for excellence as a framework to validate our thinking as we work through project lifecycles. Not so much to help us decide what we want to do…rather to confirm that we are delivering holistic sustainability and wellbeing solutions.”

Key Sweco contributions

1. BREEAM, WELL and Fitwel Consultation
2. Embodied Carbon Analysis
3. Green Material Procurement Review
4. Life Cycle Analysis (Costing) for optimal sustainable replacement solution
5. Social Value Strategy, Monitoring and Measurement

Key WELL Platinum features at Bloom

• Approximately 11% of the building comprises landscaped terraces (15,400 sq ft), meaning Bloom has one of the highest office-to-terrace ratios of any building in London, offering year-round access to the outdoors. The communal edible garden grows fruit and herbs and creates a space that allows people to relax and manage stress.
• Bloom is home to a multi-purpose fitness studio (1,200 sq. ft) with equipment for classes and individual use. With no membership fees for employees working within the building, the studio is another option for space to unwind and stay healthy.
• The building has been designed to include architectural features and artwork that enhance the user experience, and technology to ensure the highest standards of air and acoustic quality.

Key BREEAM Outstanding features at Bloom

• An EPC A rating for the base build.
• The building encourages and enables sustainable commuting and active lifestyles, with bookable Brompton bicycles to attend external meetings and the ability to cycle straight in from the Cycle Superhighway. It has 248 secure cycle spaces at street level within the building.
• All energy aims to be net zero carbon through partnerships with Citigen and E.ON, the largest supplier of renewable electricity in the UK.