Vitesse
Rapid growth had taken Vitesse beyond the capabilities of its existing office. Its new London workplace needed to reflect a more mature financial services business, create a credible environment for clients and give its growing team greater choice over how and where they work.
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Location
London
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Sectors
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Services
A workplace designed for the business Vitesse has become
For its first major workplace fit-out, Vitesse appointed AIS to help challenge assumptions and establish what the business really needed from its next space.
The result is a 14,000 sq ft workplace shaped around distinct employee and client journeys, flexible neighbourhoods and a design language rooted in three of Vitesse’s core values: Trust, Ownership and Productivity.
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Size
14,000 sq ft
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Completed
2026
Designing for growth, trust and experience
AIS began by looking beyond Vitesse’s immediate requirements to consider how the workplace needed to support the company’s longer-term ambitions.
Workplace strategy challenged the conventions of a typical office layout. Instead of concentrating collaboration in one central hub surrounded by desks, AIS developed a landscape of smaller neighbourhoods, distributing breakout and collaborative settings throughout the workplace. This gives teams more choice, encourages movement and interaction and creates capacity for future expansion, with collaborative areas able to transition into additional desk neighbourhoods as the business grows.
The strategy also considered two very different experiences. Vitesse needed an open, energetic environment for its people while presenting the confidence, professionalism and discretion expected by high-profile clients in the financial services sector.
Two journeys through one workplace
Central to the design is a spatial concept AIS describes as “lanes and avenues”, creating different but connected journeys for employees and clients.
Visitors follow a more curated route through the workplace, experiencing the energy of the business without compromising privacy. Employees move through a more open and connected environment, with activity and circulation positioned towards the windows to maximise natural light and bring a visible sense of movement to the space.
Smaller workplace neighbourhoods replace the conventional single collaboration hub, with breakout and informal settings distributed across the floorplate. A town hall with banquette seating and a media wall provides a flexible setting for company-wide updates, events and team interaction, while two project rooms can be combined using a movable partition.
Vitesse’s values also shape the visual experience. Trust informs the front-of-house spaces through muted tones, refined lighting and clean architectural lines. Ownership introduces more tactile textures, stronger contrasts and playful details within collaborative settings, while Productivity uses cooler tones and practical finishes to create calmer environments for focused work.
Together, the three palettes give different areas their own character while maintaining a cohesive identity throughout the workplace.
Delivering flexibility into the fabric of the space
The workplace was designed not only around Vitesse’s requirements today, but around how the business could continue to grow.
That adaptability is built into the physical environment. Collaboration areas can transition into future desk neighbourhoods as headcount increases, while two dedicated project rooms are separated by a movable partition, allowing the spaces to expand, contract and support different types of work.
Construction detailing also plays an important role in differentiating the employee and client experience. Refined lighting, clean lines and material continuity create a calm and credible front-of-house environment, while more tactile materials and contrasting finishes bring greater energy to employee collaboration areas.
Designed to change with the business
Furniture supports the neighbourhood strategy by creating a varied landscape rather than a workplace dominated by a single type of setting.
Across the floorplate, open-plan workstations sit alongside breakout spaces, collaboration settings, project rooms and more informal areas, giving people greater choice according to the task at hand.
Flexibility was particularly important given Vitesse’s growth trajectory. Furniture and layouts allow spaces to change function over time, ensuring areas currently used for collaboration can accommodate additional workstations if required without fundamentally reworking the workplace.
Within the town hall, banquette seating and flexible furniture support everything from company updates and presentations to social events and informal team interaction. More playful furniture and tactile finishes within collaboration areas reinforce the Ownership design principle, while calmer, practical settings support focused work.
Rather than being considered separately from the architecture, furniture helps translate Vitesse’s values into the everyday experience of the workplace.
Vitesse's new London workplace reflects a business at a different stage of its growth: more established and professional, but without losing the energy and ambition that helped it get there.
Built for where the business is going
By combining workplace strategy, design, construction and furniture, AIS has created an environment that balances two important experiences: a credible, considered destination for clients and an open, flexible workplace for employees.
Most importantly, the space isn’t fixed around today’s requirements. From adaptable project rooms to workplace neighbourhoods capable of changing as teams grow, flexibility has been designed in from the outset, giving Vitesse a workplace that can continue to evolve alongside the business.
