NomuraVIP Team Suite – Stage 3 Design Pack (D&B Handover)
|
Category
Interior Design
Location
London
Type
Workplace
Crux was appointed to collaborate with Nomura’s internal architectural and property teams to design a bespoke workplace suite for one of the bank’s highest-performing internal teams. The project focused on creating a discreet, executive-grade environment that reflected the team’s status within the organisation while aligning with Nomura’s refined corporate standards and governance requirements.
The role required a sensitive and detail-led approach, balancing traditional financial services expectations with the need for privacy, performance, and a high-quality client-facing experience.
Nomura required a tailored workplace environment that reflected both the performance and discretion associated with a senior, client-facing team. The space needed to support confidential work, internal collaboration, and external engagement, while remaining aligned with the bank’s broader corporate aesthetic and operational constraints.
The project sat within a complex stakeholder environment, involving the VIP team itself, Nomura’s internal architects, property managers, and a cost-driven design and build contractor. Achieving alignment across these groups was critical to ensuring the design met both experiential and commercial expectations.
“When you design for the best, compromise should never be part of the plan.”
— Heather Saunders, Founder | Principle
Key Features
VIP team suite within a global investment bank
Collaborative design with in-house architect and property team
Stage 3 pack with focus on discretion, quality, and proportion
Executive finishes, bespoke joinery, and acoustic detailing
Crux approached the project through careful workplace analysis and stakeholder engagement, focusing on how the team operated day to day and which spatial qualities were essential to performance and trust. The design strategy prioritised clarity, restraint, and precision, using material quality, bespoke joinery, controlled lighting, and acoustic planning to communicate value without unnecessary visual noise.
The layout was designed to maximise privacy and efficiency, with hospitality-style client zones, discreet circulation, and carefully managed thresholds between public and secure areas. Rather than relying on brand graphics, the environment expressed prestige through proportion, detailing, and spatial calm.
“The strength of Crux’s approach was their ability to navigate a complex stakeholder environment and align multiple priorities around a clear design intent. Their documentation and clarity were critical to achieving consensus at senior level.”
— Former Client
Crux worked closely with Nomura’s internal teams to document the design intent through a detailed Stage 3 package intended to safeguard quality through handover to the appointed design and build contractor. Multiple collaborative reviews were used to align expectations and resolve detail before construction.
However, during contractor-led delivery, a number of nuanced design elements were diluted or altered, highlighting the risk inherent in high-touch environments when design intent is not actively represented through construction. Crux remained engaged post-handover, supporting the client in clarifying intent and addressing areas where quality had been compromised.
While the completed space retained the overall structure of the original concept, elements of the intended refinement were lost during delivery. Crux’s continued involvement helped Nomura recover aspects of the original ambition and reinforced learning around delivery governance.
More importantly, the project became a clear reference point for the client, demonstrating the importance of maintaining design guardianship through construction when precision, trust, and prestige are central to the workplace experience.
This project demonstrates Crux’s ability to operate within highly governed, performance-driven environments where detail and discretion matter as much as design. By translating organisational behaviour and cultural expectation into spatial strategy, we help clients create workplaces that support confidence, focus, and professional presence.
The earlier Crux is involved — and the longer we remain engaged through delivery — the greater the positive impact we can have on protecting quality and intent. At Crux, success is measured not only by design vision, but by how effectively that vision survives the realities of delivery in complex, high-stakes environments.