Banks have long been occupiers of innovative buildings.
They have dominated major new CBD developments
and occupied state-of-the-art office stock. This trend was
caused in part by the ‘big bang’ and also by the last wave of
technology revolution – the growth of networked technology
and the high specification solutions demanded of trading
infrastructure. Buildings are places to work, they are the
engines of a business. But organisations have to take it to the
next level – their buildings have to be places to inspire.
At the height of the banking boom in the 1980s and 1990s,
developers were creating large amounts of building stock
with the banks in mind – vast floor plates, oversized cores
and impressive atriums. But are developers creating new
stock now which meets the demands of banks? We have
seen the number of buildings created with banks in mind
4.3. Building typology
reduce (with the exception of pre-lets), and so believe that
some functions (especially traders) may have to change how
they work because of building topology. One of the banks
we interviewed summed up the view of many, saying, “we
do not know of anyone who has been building large trading
floors over the last five years; we don’t see the demand in this
sector that we saw in the 90s and early 00s”.
Banks that we spoke to remain adamant that to get a building
that is a good fit, they need to be able to work with the
developer to have an influence from the ground up. They want
to create focal points at the centre of floors – not just the lifts
and cores. They believe that developers are not considering
occupancy patterns or technology developments in five to ten
years’ time. Occupiers have a more long term view – and talk
about the need for a fundamental rethink – creating buildings
that can change and adapt across their lifespan.
By using primary locations in
secondary cities – for example
the CBDs of non-capital cities
– banks are ensuring their
real estate costs can remain
reasonable while having
no problems attracting and
retaining the right talent.
48
The future of the financial workplace
|
September 2014
