Trading floor technology and workspace design for a European Bank

When an Eastern European bank needed to specify and design the technology and workspace for its new trading floor there was only one place to come. A successful investment bank was acquired by one of its country’s leading retail banks. The larger institution wanted to relocate the trading floor along with back and middle office, break-out rooms, boardrooms and a reception area to an underutilized atrium in its flagship HQ building on the other side of the capital. The brief required the design concept for a high spec, symbolic trading floor facility to be prepared that would factor in the latest trading floor technology.

The JP Reis team comprised a principal technology consultant, a subject matter expert, a technical writer, 2 interior design and fit-out specialists and an interior architect. Combining the technology and design streams in this way removes the inefficiency of incompatible proposals being made. Initial workshops focused on the choice of computing to provide the required processing power and graphics performance to support trading activities, comms and data systems and to accommodate multiple local area networks. Every conceivable option was proposed and selection criteria qualified and evaluated until a fully-costed selection of three remained. The steering committee selected small form factor PCs at the desk.

With that decision made, the design team was able to narrow the desking options to those with enclosed cabinets and the floor layout could be designed without a local server room. There remained other logistical challenges on the design side including:

Remediation of split-level flooring and low ceilings around the perimeter of the space.
Managing seasonal extremes of light, darkness and temperature under the atrium’s large glass ceiling.
Designing the layout so that all teams and interdependencies could be respected.
Providing sufficient dependable power.

With the operational parameters defined, the internal architect was able to prepare a beautiful, contemporary space drawing on the company’s brand colors and organic shapes and textures. Ingress to the trading space would be via a reception area that was restrained and clean despite its opulence.

The next challenges would include the selection of all technology infrastructure, hardware and appropriate technology vendors, the technology migration including data center and applications, the build, the fit out and the physical move.