Macquarie’s Ropemaker Place was designed as a model for a new transparency in banking services revolving around an open atrium and connecting staircase.

While the bold atrium serves to connect the businesses, it also becomes a bridge into the workings of the bank for visitors. Clients and visitors are greeted in the dedicated ground floor lobby and emerge, via lifts, on the Level 11 Guest Relations area. From here, they engage in confidential dealings in private rooms, use the conference or event spaces, or meet within the atrium volume and enjoy clear views into all the Macquarie workspaces. Their options include enjoying a coffee in the Level6 business lounge, a formal lunch in the dining rooms, a cocktail reception in the Level 11 conference rooms, a presentation in an atrium pod overlooking the trading room floor, or morning tea in the Level 8 cafe.

Just as there are different experiences for visitors and users, two separate messages about the brand coincide. The entry sequence for visitors is shaped by a message of simplicity and restraint which begins at the ground floor street presence and follows through to the Level

11 guest spaces. The linear ‘pin-stripe’ of City tradition informs the architectural design and graphics, with more exuberant expression in the linear ceiling treatment. Once immersed in the atrium space, the brand becomes more provocative and informal, with the building structure exposed and the clear message that this is a modern factory for work.