Financial Conduct Authority
Relocating around 4,000 staff is no easy feat. So when the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) embarked on its mission to find a new home, the regulatory body undertook an extensive search across some of London’s most exciting areas. With such high levels of risk, the project had to tick all the boxes. And with its excellent nearby facilities, international transport links and fantastic commercial value, 12 Endeavour Square in Stratford did just that.
Close collaboration throughout the team was key to the project’s success. And we worked closely with the developer’s architects to produce a next-generation office design that supports the FCA’s efficient, agile and collaborative work style with countless stimulating interior spaces.
Promoting health and well-being throughout, the 15-storey building unites all London staff under one roof for the first time and offers a diverse mix of facilities alongside the right infrastructure to support the business as it grows.
Located right next to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park meant that a connection between the exterior and the interior was incredibly important. When planning the workspaces, maximising natural light and views was a key consideration. A connecting staircase in the atrium links communal breakout spaces and was a major architectural intervention to the base build scheme, while an extensive interior planting programme was designed to reinforce the connection with the outside.
An atrium interlinked by stairs throughout floors encourages openness and transparency. This has helped eliminate siloed working and lends itself perfectly to dynamic collaboration, allowing individuals and teams to come together. The building design encourages informal conversations, while generous sight lines have been opened up across floors and through the building, opening the entire organisation and creating a greater sense of community and common purpose.
It was our shared objective to ensure we were thinking, planning and designing for the future and not the present. Change was managed very closely to ensure key decisions weren’t revisited, and the design constantly move forward. We engaged with groups from throughout the organisation, including the diversity and accessibility groups. The result is a considered, inclusive environment that has suits a diverse body of staff. One key feature output is a suite of non-gender-specific WCs, available to both staff and visitors.
FCA’s people-centric HQ enables staff to work in a variety of styles dependent on their respective tasks. Enabled by mobile technology solutions, a new working culture embracing movement, transparency and connectivity has been adopted.
Through the introduction of agile working practices, increased alternative work settings and flexible spaces, the FCA can now easily adapt to future growth and change. As the catalyst for a dramatic shift into new ways of working, the relocation has added real value to the organisation. Layouts, settings and amenities allow teams to collaborate in new ways. Knowledge sharing, mobility and transparency have increased throughout the business.
