Barclays Glasgow Campus

With a desire for Barclays to reach out beyond their walls, we started by exploring the opportunities of the campus to invigorate its context, identifying connections and speculating about its position in the city for the future. In a city already bustling with retail, leisure and entertainment options and supporting many a great night out - either due to judicious planning or pot luck - the Campus needs to differentiate itself and provide something new and unique primarily for Barclays colleagues but with an eye to inviting friends and family, local residents and visitors. 

Amenity spaces are a critical ingredient of new urban quarters especially when they can genuinely connect with local, regional and border contexts. In this case amenity needed to reflect the city’s ingenuity, building on, and repurposing surprising experiences in a city already laden with contrasts, culture and creativity.

The Campus sought to go beyond identikit high streets and push past the tendency for sameness and homogeneity that often plagues large scale urban projects.

We toured Glasgow, seeking out these businesses, from independent gyms and wellbeing centres, to coffee roasters and health food purveyors; we met with local designers in homewares, bags, accessories and clothing before concluding our trip with great food and beverages sourced and produced across West Scotland.

Our amenity space designs respond to this ethos with two very different outcomes: 

1. A comfortable rooftop cafe bar would be full of deep textures and colours creating a gentle barrier free experience with stunning views of the river and city skyline. 

2. A bike shop where being messy isn’t an issue, a space to feel involved that acts as a base for physical activity at a range of comfort levels from athlete to beginner. 

3. An external movement track which utilises the city as part of the site, finding opportunities for play and activity in 5 or 50 minutes. 

Since we began work in 2019 the way we work has changed due to an historic shift during the Covid-19 pandemic which continues to impact workplaces across our cities.

The impacts continue to shift the ways we work, with a greater desire for mobility, choice and co-location with team members. While many will return to workplaces for part, or all, of the working week, there is also an increase in flexible working patterns, working from home and for people to combine working with their other responsibilities. These shifts also highlight the vitality of places for gathering safely in public space. The inclusion of new landscaping, seating areas and cycle paths to the North of the Campus supports a more connected and walkable city, whilst the pop-up and permanent ground floor activations work to embed the new development for colleagues and residents alike.