Project overview
Unity Place is a ground breaking, purpose built headquarters for Santander in Milton Keynes, delivered by Osborne and Company as a complete turnkey development from shell and core through to fit out.
Originally conceived as a corporate headquarters, the design evolved during the Covid pandemic to incorporate co working, retail, food and beverage, auditorium and public service elements. This created a complex, mixed use environment serving employees, partners, retailers and the wider community.
PTS was appointed in 2019 to join the professional team, working closely with Santander’s technical community and project stakeholders to deliver integrated technology design from concept through to occupation.
Vision
The ambition for Unity Place was to create a world class financial services headquarters that also functions as a vibrant public destination. The building needed to support Santander colleagues, serviced office users, retailers and visitors, all within a cohesive and future ready environment.
This presented significant technology challenges. Infrastructure had to support diverse operational requirements, from secure banking environments to public facing retail and auditorium spaces. Systems needed to be coordinated across base build and fit out, ensuring seamless integration of AV, smart systems, network and BMS technologies.
Achieving a unified vision across such varied uses required early engagement, strong stakeholder coordination and a clearly defined smart building strategy.
Our Approach
PTS initially supported key physical infrastructure elements within the base build design, ensuring that connectivity, resilience and capacity were embedded from the outset. Given the public facing nature of the ground floor, this included infrastructure to support retail, food and beverage outlets and auditorium facilities.
As the project evolved, PTS expanded its role to provide Audio Visual and multimedia consultancy for both Santander’s corporate environments and the shared public areas. We defined a consistent AV strategy that supports collaboration, events and digital engagement while aligning with architectural intent.
PTS also led the development of the Smart technology strategy, coordinating closely with the base build and fit out BMS services. This ensured building systems operated cohesively, supporting energy efficiency, user comfort and operational performance.
Wi-Fi planning and network coordination were critical to delivering seamless connectivity across corporate, co working and public spaces. PTS worked alongside Santander stakeholders and the wider professional team to manage interfaces between disparate systems and ensure secure segregation where required.
By embedding within the professional team throughout design and construction, PTS provided continuous technical oversight, aligning infrastructure, AV and smart systems under a single coordinated vision.
Outcomes and benefits
Unity Place successfully delivers a unified technology ecosystem within a highly complex mixed use development.
Key Outcomes
- Integrated infrastructure supporting corporate, retail and public environments
- Coordinated AV and multimedia systems enabling events, collaboration and engagement
- Smart systems aligned with BMS to enhance operational performance
- Seamless Wi-Fi and network connectivity across diverse user groups
- A cohesive technology strategy enabling multiple stakeholders to operate within a single destination
The result is an award winning headquarters and community hub that demonstrates how integrated smart building consultancy can support financial services transformation at scale.
Key Stats
743,000 sq ft mixed use headquarters
Integrated technology design spanning corporate, retail and public spaces
Client testimonial
“Having PTS Consulting embedded in the professional team provided the skills and knowledge needed at the right times throughout the design and build. Their expertise meant we could confidently deliver a ground breaking, purpose built workplace for Santander, meeting the complex needs of a diverse set of stakeholders while maintaining a unified vision. PTS’s collaborative approach and technical insight were key in ensuring Unity Place’s technology worked seamlessly across every aspect of the project, from public spaces and retail areas to smart building systems and multimedia solutions.
Patrick Foord
Development Director, Osborne and Company