Medibank Place Defines Health In The Office
‘Activity Based Working’ (ABW) has become a familiar model in contemporary workplace design.. Think - a mix of desks, breakout zones and quiet rooms. But for Medibank, Australia's largest health insurer, it was only the starting point. When the company set out to build its new Melbourne headquarters it asked architecture firm Hassell alongside workplace strategists Veldhoen + Company (the very consultancy that pioneered ABW) to invent something beyond it.
It’s what Hassell calls ‘Health Based Working’ (HBW). This is a workplace conceived as an active intervention in the physical and mental health of the people inside it. It doesn’t treat employees as mere vehicles of productivity. It is integrated the understanding that healthy people working together in healthy places of work always produce the best results.
Built in 2014, 720 Bourke Street (Medibank Place) is one of the earliest Australian examples of this ‘healthy work’ movement. It became the first existing building in Australia to be awarded WELL Gold certification for core and shell, alongside a 6 Star Green Star rating and 5 Star NABERS Energy rating.
That philosophy extends into how people navigate the tower. Peering down into the void, two continuous winding staircases reveal a series of colourful floors. It was strategically designed to be faster than waiting for a lift. The playful journey motivates and integrates small, compounding movement throughout the workday. Hassell just made the stairs the easiest option. The same logic extends to the building's edges, where a ramp from the main entrance leads directly to bike storage - gently nudging the day's first decision toward cycling over driving.
The building holds 2,300 interior plants and 520 plants on its façade, anchored by two 25-metre-high green walls - in striking contrast to the heavily concreted Docklands precinct surrounding it. At ground level, an edible garden and demonstration kitchen turn healthy eating into a culture for staff to grow and cook together.
The prioritising of employee health feels embedded in every detail. Circadian lighting in certain areas mimic natural daylight patterns across the day, supporting employees' biorhythms. The workplace boasts a multi-purpose sports court at street level. Autonomy is encouraged with employees having 26 distinct types of work settings to choose from.
Rather than handing the interiors to a single design voice, Hassell invited three very different studios - Chris Connell Design, Kerry Phelan Design Office, and Russell and George - to each shape a portion of the tower's plaza level. It feels like a deliberate patchwork of character across one floor. Distinct spatial experiences to move between rather than one uniform aesthetic to sit inside.
Medibank Place not only provides healthy space for its employees but also opens itself up to the public. Functioning as a gateway into the Docklands precinct, it offers the public a timber amphitheatre, cafes, shops, and a park at ground level. It is proof that corporate headquarters can also be civic infrastructure.
Medibank measured their outcomes and the numbers back up the ambition to create a truly healthy workplace. Just four months after Medibank moved in 79% of employees reported working more collaboratively, 70% said they felt healthier, and 66% reported greater productivity. As Kylie Bishop, Medibank's Executive General Manager of People and Culture, put it - the building “epitomises our purpose and values and all that we stand for.”
For an insurer whose entire business is betting on people's health, Medibank Place is the rare headquarters that puts its money, and its architecture, exactly where its mission is.
Credits
Developer
Cbus Property
Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture & Urban Design
Hassell
Collaborating Interior Designers - Plaza Level
Chris Connell Design, Kerry Phelan Design Office, Russell & George
Workplace Strategy
Veldhoen + Company
Façade Greening & Green Walls
Fytogreen
Signage & Wayfinding
Studio Ongarato
Builder
Brookfield Multiplex (now Multiplex)
Photography
Earl Carter & Peter Bennetts