The Challenge
The Covid-19 pandemic fundamentally changed how and where people work. Barclays recognised that returning to the office wouldn't mean returning to pre-pandemic behaviours. The challenge was no longer providing desks and meeting rooms. It was redefining the purpose of campuses, offices and branches in a world where colleagues could work from almost anywhere.
Redefining the workplace as an ecosystem
Barclays partnered with Engine to develop the Curated Workplace Experience Vision, repositioning the workplace as a destination people would actively choose because it enabled collaboration, learning, innovation, and culture in ways remote working could not.
The workplace was no longer defined by a single building. We reimagined work as an ecosystem spanning home, campuses, offices, third spaces and digital environments, recognising that colleagues would move seamlessly between them depending on the work they needed to do.
By shifting the conversation from where people work to how they work, Barclays created a workplace strategy designed to support changing behaviours rather than fixed locations, establishing a more resilient and future-ready model for the organisation.
Starting with people, not buildings
Most workplace programmes begin with occupancy models, floorplates and architecture.
We took a fundamentally different approach.
We started by understanding the outcomes colleagues needed to achieve, then defined the experiences that would enable them. Only then did we translate those experiences into workplace propositions, spatial requirements and ultimately architectural design.
Creating one vision for every workplace
Rather than producing individual workplace concepts, we developed a single vision capable of guiding every future Barclays campus, office and branch.
The vision established consistent colleague outcomes, experience principles and signature workplace propositions, creating a repeatable framework that could evolve alongside changing ways of working while ensuring every future development remained aligned to the same strategic ambition.
Bringing local character to every workplace
Using the vision as the foundation, we developed bespoke Curated Workplace Visions for six individual locations.
Each site interpreted the same experience principles through its own identity and purpose, from London's Eclectic Liberation to Glasgow's Heritage Inspired (Re)generation, ensuring every workplace felt authentic to its location while remaining recognisably Barclays.
The result was a workplace portfolio that balanced consistency with local relevance.
Accelerating workplace development
Creating a compelling workplace vision is only valuable if it can be translated into buildings.
We bridged the gap between experience strategy and architectural design, translating colleague outcomes and workplace experiences into clear spatial principles and design requirements that architects could confidently develop against.
By giving lead architects a clear understanding of the experiences the workplace needed to enable, not simply the spaces it needed to contain, we accelerated scheme development while ensuring every design decision remained aligned to colleague needs, business objectives and the original Vision.
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