Blockchain

Sometimes the client’s vision for a project is so vivid it launches design development like a rocket. When Blockchain hired Studio O+A to turn its London office into an architectural representation of the future of banking, they described their idea this way: “If Goldman Sachs and a spaceship had a baby…” Design direction doesn’t come any clearer than that. Sharing its block of Mayfair with Claridge’s Hotel and the Argentine Embassy, Blockchain occupies the combined upper floors of two 18^th century buildings in a space that captures the unique vitality of its neighborhood. There is no better symbol of “old money” than Mayfair (“For the most part nobly built and inhabited by People of Quality” one resident said of it in 1735.) And there may be no better representative of “new money” than the cryptocurrency innovator Blockchain. O+A’s design team sought to bring the two together in centuries-spanning harmony.

“A Space Odyssey”

On the one hand the space retains the character of classic Mayfair design: herringbone floors, sculpted molding, textures of wood and stone that convey the trusted, timeless values of traditional banking. On the other it’s as if these elements were swept up in a spaceship and carried to another galaxy of finance. Dani Gelfand O+A’s Design Director on the project says she referred to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” for inspiration, and the Blockchain spaces do capture a sealed elegance that feels related to that film’s gravity-free environments. Marble desks fitted with mirrored bases seem suspended above the floor. A wood panel installation faces a wall clad in stainless steel. An oculus bathes evening operations in cool spacecraft light.

A Pizza Door Handle

At the same time the vibe here is distinctly Blockchain’s. Cryptocurrency culture gets a subtle nod throughout the space in details that are at once meaningful and wry. When a particular currency takes off in crypto world it is said to be “going to the moon” so lunar references run through the project. Also, pizza references (because the first purchase made with cryptocurrency was reportedly a pizza.) Their shapes are similar so the custom doors leading from reception into the offices feature half-circle door-pulls, one made to look like the lunar surface, the other like a surface of mozzarella.

A Solid Foundation of Security

Underlying the playfulness is a solid foundation of security and care for clients and employees. In addition to the reception, open workspace, and meeting rooms typical of a financial office, this one includes an acoustically protected Markets Room where confidential conversations take place in airlocked privacy; a Tea Point, as it’s called in the UK, because the future of banking in London will always include tea; and a wellness room where Blockchain travelers can catch a nap and shower. O+A worked with local London design firm Oktra on materials and furniture specification—our team identifying the colors and textures wanted for a space, theirs determining where in the UK or Europe they could get it. If that kind of collaboration suggestions Mission Control guiding a distant landing—well, that feels appropriate too.