The brief for the project was to create an a space for an automatic safe deposit box service that is accessible to customers 24hours a day. Located in an existing industrial space with no windows of around 90sqm in size, the space was to include a vault, 2 viewing rooms where customers can access their safe deposit box, an office for in-person customer on-boarding and servicing, and an entrance and lobby sequence that would bring customers from the outside to the various parts of the space

The intention of the design was to have the space project a sense of silent strength and resilient security, but also to have a sense of expectedness, within its windowless location in an industrial building, through a play of light, and to inject a sense of journey and poetry into a location and function that would typically be sterile and transactional. We built the concept of the space around the idea of a cavern, from which the various components of the space are planned around.

Spatially, the journey begins at the entrance, leading down a corridor rendered in a grey textured plaster. Light filters down from a recessed simulated skylight at a corner, a hint of what lies ahead.

The journey continues down the path through a security vestibule, slowly revealing the main space within the project, a tall cavernous lobby. In this central cavernous lobby, the space tapers up towards a central light source, simulating daylight filtering down from the top. The walls of the space are finished in a granite tile, to create a sense of solidity, but given a sense of scale and verticality through the size and pattern of the tile lay. Below the “skylight” a landscaped planter anchors the space, providing a poetic counterpoint to the strength of the walls, softening the space. Through this central cavern, a customer will be able to head towards the viewing rooms to access their personal safe deposit box through the automated system.

The non-public or staffed spaces are accessed through concealed doors, clad in the same granite tiles that are used for the wall. Within the viewing rooms and the meeting room, the mood is warmer with a main palette of wood with brass accents. The user is free to linger with the central cavern for as long to take in the contemplative mood of the space.