What's a 'wellness village' and will it tempt you back into the office?

The capital’s first mixed-use ‘wellness village’ is set to hit Bankside in London, as global real-estate firm Hines announces it has secured planning permission for a Foster + Partners-designed development that promises to set the worldwide standard. Benefiting from the expertise of wellness specialist Pillar, best known for the wellness club at Raffles London at The OWO, The Round will be ‘created as a solution to pervasive societal issues, such as social isolation, depression and anxiety, increased incidences of dementia, chronic under-activity and increases in cardio-vascular disease, obesity and diabetes,’ explains Oli Patrick, Pillar’s clinical director.

Ultimately, those who come to work here should ‘feel better when they leave than when they arrived,’ adds Ross Blair of Hines. The data-driven focuses — based on the core categories of environment, movement, mindset, social, nutrition and recovery — will range from air quality, acoustics and a desk space that ‘encourages regular and spontaneous movement’ to mentorship, music, art, breathwork, meditation, cooking workshops and nutritionist consultations. Access to the great outdoors won’t be a problem, as The Round will have more terraces than any other tower in the city and, as part of a 150% increase in biodiversity planned for the site, 100 new trees will be planted.

And it's not just The Round that's going all woo-woo on us: property developers across the UK appear to be embracing the forest-bathing trend, prioritising the creation of biophilic high rises with dedicated green spaces. With the Global Wellness Institute valuing the wellness real-estate sector at $438 billion, predicted to grow 15.8% annually until 2028, and with Knight Frank’s Wealth Report revealing 25% of buyers now value amenity-rich homes with wellbeing spaces (up from 9%), it appears the trend is here to stay. The phrase ‘forest bathing’ is a literal translation of the Japanese shinrin-yoku, coined in 1982 (but not invented) by a Japanese government figure after numerous studies proved the therapeutic benefits of spending time amid Nature, with its capacity to reduce cortisol levels and accelerate healing.

In London, landscape architects and urban-planning firm Gillespies is a poster child for the movement, responsible for the green spaces around Neo Bankside, and the critically acclaimed Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street (the Walkie-Talkie), the capital’s highest public garden. Now, the Gillespies team and the former head horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have created the planting schemes for Farrer Huxley and Squire & Partners’ tropical oases within Chalegrove Properties’ Landmark Pinnacle project in Canary Wharf, the tallest residential building in Europe, where apartments start from £615,000. On the 27th floor, more than 3,500 plants, such as ficus, fragrant stephanotis, spider plants and peace lilies dominate, rising to 13,000 on the 75th floor’s Sky Terrace, the largest and highest of its kind in the UK, with the UK’s tallest living walls and 360-degree views.

‘Where land is at a premium, this new model of internal gardens on a large scale could be part of the solution for better, healthier lives at the centre of our cities,’ argues Armel Mourgue, partner at Gillespies. ‘The controlled temperature, light and humidity generated within the Panorama Garden will create ideal tropical conditions, where lush, green, exotic bold foliage will thrive even in winter.’

Patrick from Pillar continues: ‘Working with Hines, we have taken wellbeing back to its science: what are the multitude of factors that directly and indirectly affect the functioning of the human machine and how do we optimise these? Our objective was to create a 360-degree environment that facilitates positive wellbeing interactions as the path of least resistance. The Round will fuse physical design and space allocation with tailored service provision, combined with community building and embedded in a centralised wellbeing culture.’

The Round will also be fossil-fuel free, 100% electric and net-zero carbon in operation, with 95% of the 1¾-acre site’s heat coming from ground-source heat pumps; there are hopes that it will be the first high-rise scheme in the UK to achieve the official WELL Community Gold Standard.

The £2 billion project is set for completion in 2030, offering 800,000sq ft of office space and 433 new homes (40% affordable); visit The Round for details.