Working closely with Barclays business development team, Conran & Partners devised a modern, practical and spacious concept design for new high-street branch interiors, with the aim of making customer experience as efficient and accessible as possible. Two design elements — the colonnade and the courtyard — have been employed, fusing the grandeur of a traditional banking hall with a lighter, more contemporary approach.

The counter services and private meeting rooms are set within a colonnade of white plaster and dark timber, arranged on a regular grid to evoke the formality of a traditional banking hall. The central open-pan area has a raised illuminated ceiling, giving the impression of a covered courtyard. Smoked-glass screens provide privacy for the seating and informal meeting areas.

A blue-LED dot-matrix screen replaces the ubiquitous poster displays behind the street-frontage glazing, to give information on financial products and reinforce Barclays’ ‘blue’ branding.