Page 22 - Designing Ways 247

COMMERCIAL
INTERIOR

XAPO. A Physical Space for a Digital Bank

Gibraltar, Gibraltar

APO (pronounced ‘Sapo’) remnants of the original city walls and
provides online banking services defence towers, while the front façade
Xfor cryptocurrencies. The faces Grand Casemates Square - a lively
company’s director, Wences Casares, social hub with many outdoor bars and
commissioned Lagranja studio to create restaurants. The series of barracks (or
their flagship headquarters; the first ‘casemates’) were built by the British
physical HQ for XAPO, and the first army in 1817, and are among the most
transformation of a historical building for preserved of the military buildings that
Lagranja. characterise this once fortified town.
Lagranja found the barracks in a semi-
A singular location ruined state, unappreciated for their
XAPO Is situated inside an old army historical significance and crying out for
barracks in the heart of Gibraltar’s old a new use. As part of the project, one of
centre, in the shadow of its famous rock. the bays adjoining Xapo will be revived as
The rear of the structure is adjoined to the a public area for art and cultural events.

22 Issue 247 • dw