James Cubitt out to promote healthy lifestyle, productivity with The Wesley development
After a careful and instructive study and discovery of the impact of living spaces on workplace productivity, James Cubitt Developments, a real estate investment and development firm, is out with the design and development of a housing project which, it hopes, will ensure wellness, provide for a healthy lifestyle and boost productivity.
Known as ‘The Wesley’, the development which is located in Victoria Island, is a luxurious assortment of 24 three-bedroom apartments and maisonettes that reflect the aspirations of its potential occupants.
This development, which boasts of unique features including the rooftop leisure area, zen garden, art galleria and on-site first aid and ambulance service, is a product of the company’s belief in scientific research findings which support the position that the places people live in affect their thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
Employees who are distracted at work because of issues related to their living spaces will definitely struggle to work effectively which is why, today, smart organisations have come to understand that one of their primary goals is to enhance the performance of their people, believing that increased productivity will directly affect a company’s bottom-line, and that when employees are productive, they accomplish more within a given period of time.
Douglas Porteous, a professor and renowned geographer, is of the view that “a living space or home is not necessarily a geographical space composed of four walls on a plot of land, but is a territorial core, a preferred space, and a fixed point of reference around which people structure their daily lives; it is the territory that is used for sleeping, grooming, and reproductive behaviour.”
The home, he proposes, “confers three substantial benefits on its occupants including identity, security and stimulation”, adding that it provides them with both physical and psychic security and serves the human need for having a place to live or a space to possess.
Personal comfort and psycho-social harmony in living spaces are so profoundly important that some experts have argued that designs must be influenced by the dreams and hopes of the people that would inhabit those spaces.
Oyediran Akinniranye, James Cubitt Developments’ Managing Director, agrees with this viewpoint, disclosing that “The Wesley is the first expression of what we call our “Zen Series’; The ‘Zen Series’ is an idea rooted in the fact that we can influence workplace productivity by design”.
Continuing, he said, “as a reflection of this, The Wesley has been designed from ground up to remove stress and provide avenues for release and relaxation to our best assets: our people. With greater rest comes better focus, higher levels of creativity and in turn, higher productivity.”
For Peter Coker, the Director, Marketing and Communications at JCD, “‘The Wesley’ is an exciting project; everyone we have engaged in conversations about this project desires to be a part of it. The services and the comprehensive package being offered for facility management are unique propositions in today’s market; the apartments are available to both corporate organisations and top level executives who are determined to relax, recharge and see results.”
According to Akinniranye , owning a part of this remarkable development attests to the commitment by a discerning executive and socio-economically sensitive organisation to give more, revealing that The Wesley also boasts of a central kitchen and chef which ensures that occupants are not unduly concerned about maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle while parents can also focus better at work because their children are properly taken care of at the crèche.