Medibank is in the business of promoting better health for everyone. And this is the aspiration that drove Australia’s largest health insurer to create one of the healthiest workplaces in the world.
Medibank’s head office in Melbourne’s Docklands goes beyond conventional Activity Based Working (ABW) to create Health Based Working (HBW) and put the mental and physical health of people at its heart – Medibank’s members, its employees and the community.
From a multi-purpose sports court at ground level to the edible garden and demonstration kitchen promoting healthy eating to countless work settings that allow people to work in ways that best suit them, our design for the building ensures it’s ‘hard-wired for health’.
Thousands of plants on the building’s façade and in the workplace help relieve stress, improves internal air quality and transform views from grey to green – providing welcome relief from Medibank Place’s heavily concreted urban surrounds.
Medibank Place is also a welcoming gateway to the Docklands precinct, offering the public access to a timber amphitheatre, cafes, shops and a public park at ground level.
COLLABORATION
A highly collaborative design process meant architects and landscape architects contributed to the workplace interiors, interior designers and architects to the park, and all three disciplines to the base building design.
We also invited three very different interior design firms – Chris Connell Design, Kerry Phelan Design Office and Russell and George – to collaborate on the design for the plaza level in the middle of the tower. This created diversity of spaces and layers of character and meaning to inspire people to connect in new ways.