Community is at the heart of this Hamilton, Ontario based credit union’s business. When SDI Design recently relocated them to a single 22,000 square foot level we designed a series of neighborhoods for them (complete with central squares!) so their own community could thrive.
Tandia Financial moved from three cramped floors in an old building to one daylight-flooded level featuring 18 foot high ceilings. With the entire organization now on one floor we had to come up with a way of structuring the space to provide simple wayfinding and an intuitive sense of order.
By clustering hard-walled spaces at the center we divided the space into four neighbourhood quadrants. Each neighbourhood has a central common break-out area with a unique visual identity. And each of these “squares” is further differentiated by having its own individual ambiance based on one of the four seasons. The neighbourhoods and their “streets” were further differentiated by using different colours from Milliken Flooring’s “Major Frequency One/ Vibration” product line.
The public-facing facilities are organized around the town’s “Piazza”, located near the main entrance. The piazza is the seating area for Tandia’s main café space, and it is flanked by civic spaces such a sub-divisible training rooms, kitchen, boardroom and visitor meeting rooms, and reception. Greenery was introduced onto the piazza-facing wall of the full height washroom block, as well as in the reception area.
