The client is a well-known British financier and philanthropist who co-founded this enterprise in the late 90s and subsequently grew it into a ‘Global Top 20’ hedge fund. The project’s very prescriptive brief demanded that this trading floor-driven business be clearly differentiated from other fund interiors through its uniquely ‘non-corporate’ ambience.

One Space were commissioned – alongside UK-based Design Stories, project manager Merx and main contractor S&techs – to design and deliver these premises both in Hong Kong and in Shanghai. (A further Southeast Asia office is in the works.) The results were a set of atmospheric rooms and spaces that owe more to the hospitality sector than to traditional office design.