It’s Wellbeing Week (6-10 May), so it’s worth explaining how health and wellbeing features are central to the design and fitout of the Health and Medical Research Building (HMRB).

During the building design phase, Dr Matthew Wallen, Senior Lecturer in Exercise Science and Clinical Exercise Physiology, and his students in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences worked with wayfinding/signage consultants Parallax to develop a unique set of health and wellbeing messages – and these have now been inscribed on staircase handrails at both ends of the new building at Bedford Park.

These inscriptions provide informative facts about wellness, mental wellbeing, physical exertion and also offer some motivational messages. Some of these inscriptions inform us that:

• Going up stairs uses twice the energy as coming down.
• Climbing 60 stairs per day can increase cardiovascular fitness by up to five per cent.
• Taking an extra flight of stairs every day and can reduce your brain age by more than six months per year.

Along with convenient accessibility lifts, the building’s close proximity to public transport, the provision of end-of-trip facilities and bike storage, plus extensive interior and exterior landscaping that creates a peaceful and engaging walking environment, the sum of all these elements will play a crucial role in HMRB striving for WELL Gold certification for wellbeing.