Uk-Invest.com/Globalnet Financial.com

Found Associates is redesigning the 386m2 offices of Uk-Invest.com, which provides a 24-hour on-line financial news and market information service through its website.

Uk-Invest.com, the UK subsidiary of US-Based Globalnet Financial.com, is situated close to Bond Street away from the City of London. However, the office had to reflect the company’s position at the centre of global financial affairs. The offices also had to present the physical face of the company and provide a base for writers and journalists, as well as meeting facilities for clients and investors.

Found’s design approach is to strip out the existing office partitions and add three main elements. A display of 20 plasma screens set at a high level, displaying global financial information alongside pages from the company’s website, establish it as a City business. This is supplemented by breaking news information on an LED screen set flush in a 16m-wide stone slab wall which screens meeting rooms from the open-planned office. Thirdly, Found is to insert a glass cube reception area against the building core as a buffer between the Bond Street environment and the financial office.

Otherwise, office activity is highly visible, although branding (in the form of discrete application of the logo on the facing wall) is low-key. Uk-Invest.com is due to move into its new offices in February 2000.