Building planning & design
Case Studies

5 Broadgate

Year
2010

Project Director
Tim Stonor

Partners
tp bennett

Client
UBS

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The new UBS office and trading building designed by Make, internal layout by tp bennett.

The opportunity
Completed in 2016, 5 Broadgate is UBS’s new London headquarters. Occupying 700,000 sq ft (66,890 sq m) the Make designed building provides state-of-the-art trading facilities and work areas for 6,000 employees, as well as a suite of client facing areas occupying the ground, first and one of the upper floors.

Our contribution
Space Syntax worked with UBS and tp bennett to ensure that the internal layout of the building, and in particular, its main circulation areas, will deliver an environment that supports and enhances the culture of UBS.

Based on our historic involvement in shaping Broadgate’s public spaces, including the planning of 5 Broadgate with Make and British Land, our approach was to first look at the urban context to understand the impact of the network of public spaces and transport nodes on staff arrival patterns.

To develop and test the design of the building’s internal layout, we combined the urban context data with information on building programmes distribution and internal building layouts to build an Agent Based Model. The model was used to predict movement patterns within the building and to then provide design advice to achieve optimum levels of occupation, easy wayfinding and comfort for its users.

The outcome
This approach has facilitated crucial design decisions such as the overall layout and the location and orientation of staircases and lift systems.