On Tuesday 18th February, the PLACED Academy Alumni had a private guided tour of The Spine in Liverpool from Senior Facilities Manager Antonia Nestor (Avison Young) and Cathy Hardman (Royal College of Physicians).
Raine, Ismail and Nema were shown around the beautiful building and heard the story of how architect Rob Hopkins had carefully considered all aspects of “Well” to create one of the world’s healthiest buildings, they boast a Platinum WELL Certification for their wellness.
Antonia showed us the facilities on a range of different floors to see what was possible within the space e.g car parking, bicycle repair and parking, offices split into different sizes, the different facilities for staff and how it runs on a day to day basis and in emergencies.
Cathy took us on a wellness journey – explaining to us how the building was designed to be “well”. Some of the most notable mentions were the staircase design, the pattern (which consists of 23 million unique Voronoi polygons) on the building itself as a way to cool the building naturally, reduce glare and noise as a way to react to the local environment. The paint can remove toxins from the air and even the smaller details of cloakrooms to avoid carrying coats past reception, longer mats by the doors, specific meals and drinks available in the café and choice of plants, materials and carpets are all specially chosen to produce a healthy environment.
Cathy and Antonia were incredibly passionate about their work and the building itself and took on all questions from our Alumni – some of which required a tad bit of homework for The Spine team!
A big thank you to Antonia and Cathy for spending the morning with us and offering us an insight into the fantastic work they do in such a prominent building.