financial hubs development
LOOKING AFTER THE FINANCIALS
Following the success of Dubai’s International Financial Centre development, a new breed of purpose-built centres will spring up across the Middle and Far East. Oliver Ephgrave discovers how emerging market equivalents compare to their western counterparts
It could be assumed that the world’s top financial centres are predomi- nantly located in established markets in North America and Europe. Yet according to the 2009 Global Financial Centres Index, three of the top five centres are in emerging Asian cities: Hong Kong, Singapore and Shenzhen. This gives hope to the next generation of financial centres which are being developed in rapidly expanding cities across the Middle and Far East. While the historic financial centres in the West have evolved organ-
ically over time – such as London’s Square Mile and Wall Street in New York – the new financial centres in the East are invariably purpose-built developments. Yet this holistic model has been tried and tested in the West according to Gensler, the global architecture and planning firm responsible for the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Abu Dhabi’s upcoming financial district on Sowwah Island. Ian Mulcahey, principal and global practice area leader, says: “What
we have seen in the last 15 or 20 years is the creation of purpose-built districts which can attract and accommodate financial companies. There may be various reasons for this. It could be because the cities have a shortage of office space for those types of companies, or it could be to reposition the city economically and diversify its offering.
“For instance, the development at Canary Wharf in London is often described as a financial centre. In
reality it’s a satellite development to the existing financial centre in the Square Mile. It accommodates businesses that don’t necessarily fit in the historic financial centre. La Défense in Paris is similar in many respects – it’s on the outskirts of the city while the historic financial district is in the centre.” Mulcahey adds that the rationale for purpose-built centres is different in the emerging markets. “A lot
of the financial centres we’ve been designing recently are slightly different – they’re often in cities with an undeveloped service sector employment base that are looking to provide accommodation for financial companies. In many cases they want a comprehensively planned district, similar to Canary Wharf and La Défense, but the centres will be different because of the context.” He also points out that climactic differences will have an impact on the nature of the plan. “The biggest
variant is probably climate; it has had a bearing on the type of solution we provide. The climate in London enables open streets and walkways to be relatively comfortable. However, this type of planning is not appropriate for the Gulf, bearing in mind the summer temperatures. So at DIFC we designed a climate- controlled environment beneath the podium that could be used in the summer months, but the upper level can be used in the evenings and the winter months. We used the same strategy for the Sowwah centre in Abu Dhabi.
1 /2 Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) 3 Shanghai Tower 4 Iskandar, Malaysia
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/apr-may 2010
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