Confidential Fintech Company Offices – Beijing
WIT Design & Research delivered an expansive and eye-catching space for a confidential fintech company’s offices in Beijing, China.
The birth of a design-driven office space brand
In February 2020, the Fintech Office, located in and developed by the Ronghui International Building, were simultaneously put into operation. An office building dedicated to serving the Financial Technology industry, but like many other businesses in Beijing including those in the CBD, it felt the bite of the pandemic. It was during these challenging times that the Fintech Office made its debut.Several days later, a former AI scientist at Google, who had decided to start his own business and received funding from Google and Volkswagen, rented the entire space of the Fintech OfficeⅠ, which was originally Intended to be a co-working space. He made his decision the minute he walked into the lobby, despite the fact that the rent was almost as high as that of a building in CBD.
The deal boosted the confidence of the developer and only three months later, Fintech was launched with its cost per square meter nearly 20% higher, which meant WIT was “free to install terrazzo tiles for the floor” However, at this time the pandemic loomed over the office market and the government was calling for remote working.
After Fintech Ⅲ had been kept for the use of the investor himself for a year, more and more potential tenants came to visit the space and tried to negotiate the rental of the space. The competitive price eventually attracted the developer to rent out the space. In the meantime, the Fintech Office began to receive invitations for cooperation, including from the operator of an existing building of over one hundred thousand square meters wishing to use its brand, design and management service.
Over the past two years, the Fintech Office has thrived amid the pandemic. The office space and Dragon Restaurant, funded by the developer of the building and designed by WIT Design & Research, have offered “an ideal dining experience and “a one-minute living circle” to stressed-out professionals in the Fintech industry who are in pursuit of peace of mind, and they serve as an example of an office community breaking the spell of the business slump in the rental industry. That’s how the brand Fintech Office was born.
Priority Given to Efficiency Over Capacity
Challenged by the limited space, WIT believes that “it is normal to have an imperfect space, and that’s where designers can maneuver to make the best use of it”. The developer and the designers have the responsibility to guarantee a satisfactory number of sales per unit area, but to what extent the functionality and friendliness of the space can be delivered by the design will eventually be felt by the people who are the users of the space, and that’s the priority of WIT.When it comes to working in the modern era, working from home remains a controversial topic. Technology is helpful, but not a panacea: unable to facilitate sincere conversations and trust building as face-to-face communication does. This is especially the case when employees of the high-tech industry work under enormous pressure and require a great deal of of coordination-they in the foreseeable future will need a physical space to work together.
Design: WIT Design & Research
Design Team: Zhenhua Luo, Gongpu Zhao, Qianxuan Niu, Rui Tao, Changxin Tian, Lin Yang, Yanli Zhang, Liang Zhao, Ming Zhang, Yongcheng Xia, Yaqi Zhang, Wenyi Chen
Photography: One Thousand Degree Visual
