The EBRD’s vision for their new 370,000 sq. ft. headquarters was to create a best in class working environment, emphasising wellbeing, sustainability, diversity, and inclusion.
The interior design concept imagined the building as a living organism, connected by a dynamic ecosystem. The lighting design reveals and enhances this unique interior design in a dramatic and exuberant way, creating continuing visual interest and providing optimum lighting conditions for all visual tasks.
The stringent energy-use target of 5W/m2 was achieved by using high-efficacy light sources, focused onto task surfaces in combination with intelligent lighting controls, occupancy sensing, utilisation analytics and daylight dimming.
The vision for Five Bank Street was to co-create and deliver a best in class working environment for the EBRD’s new headquarters, with an emphasis on wellbeing, sustainability, diversity, and inclusion,
and a community that fosters a culture of choice, collaboration, and innovation.
The EBRD’s new workspace is functional, flexible and encourages full mobility to support the business needs in a fair and transparent manner and reflects the EBRD’s cultural diversity.
The 370,000 sq. ft. office space occupies the top 13 floors of the 26-storey building located at Five Bank Street in Canary Wharf, London. The office comprises open plan workspaces, meeting rooms and amenities, a café and restaurant for staff, a double height auditorium and international-format boardroom with simultaneous interpretation services, both with adjacent flexible breakout spaces for events.
The lighting design for these spaces has been developed closely with the architects and design team, but also in extensive collaboration with the Bank’s employees to nurture and enhance their experience of work.
The interior design concept imagined the building as a living organism, connected by a dynamic ecosystem. Multi-cultural references embedded in the design acknowledge the international character of the EBRD. The lighting design is fully integrated and reveals the natural materials and organic forms of the interior design in a dramatic and exuberant way, creating continuing visual interest.
Storytelling starts the moment staff and visitors walk into the EBRD’s new headquarters. As a ‘green bank’, the EBRD’s ethos is woven through the design, using biophilic forms and materials that bring the natural outside elements into the building. This approach seeks to connect occupants with nature and uses elements of biophilic design to enhance their wellbeing.
Each amenity space has a unique character and the lighting needed to enhance the interior design. Unique lighting solutions have been developed for each amenity space to create a seamless visual appearance, whilst providing optimum lighting conditions for all visual tasks, good levels of illuminance and uniformity. High levels of cylindrical illuminance are achieved to ensure optimum illumination of people’s faces whilst either standing or seated. The benchmark colour temperature is 3,000K with CRI >90 and high R9 values. Lighting of vertical surfaces is prioritised, to assist wayfinding and orientation. Dramatic accents and contrasts create visual interest, emphasising materials and finishes and highlighting key features.
– Reflecting the idea of a pathway through nature, the central link staircase has a continuous handrail integrated lighting and accent lighting concealed within the timber-slatted enclosure. A specimen tree in the staircase is illuminated by narrow beam downlights.
– The concept for the restaurant was to create a ‘garden at the top of the world’. A unique feature is the ‘cocoon’, a timber enclosure lit with concealed linear wall-grazers. The tubular feature ceiling contains downlights which also provide plant health lighting for a Bonsai tree.
– The design of the boardroom has a soft and undulating metal ceiling with integrated tuneable white linear LED luminaires which mimic daylight shifting from cool lighting to warm lighting throughout the day.
The EBRD’s vision was for a sustainable workplace which would embrace positive environmental practices and support the Bank’s staff to have a healthy working life. Biophilic designs and circular economy principles for materials are applied throughout, and the project is on target to achieve the highest levels of WELL and BREEAM certifications.
The design and construction phase of the fit-out prioritised sourcing responsible materials, with an emphasis on circularity and reduced emissions. The design of the building retains a strong focus on performance not just in terms of energy and whole life carbon, but also with regards to air, water, acoustics, and lighting quality which will be continually verified in the operational facility.
The lighting has been designed to circular economy principles, utilising luminaires designed for disassembly, refurbishment, and recycling at the end of service life.
The stringent energy use target of 5W/m2 was achieved by using high-efficacy light sources, focused onto task surfaces in combination with intelligent lighting controls, occupancy sensing, utilisation analytics and daylight dimming
