The new office will be set up for hybrid working, Harrison said. Citi announced last year that the majority of its staff globally would be working a hybrid model, with at least three days a week in the office.
"The meeting rooms need to be really carefully curated and designed now because what we want to do is enable asynchronous communication and decision making, which means that we don't fall into that proximity decision-making model just by virtue of the hybrid-working model," Harrison said.
"There's some amazing technology where you can create a virtual team no matter where you are and create that real sense of presence in the room."
But Citi is designing the office to attract staff in, Harrison said. Staff will hot-desk at the office, and desks will be arranged into "neighborhoods" and bookable in advance.
Interestingly, even though some companies are cutting back on their real-estate holdings and switching to smaller or fewer office spaces, the capacity of Citi's new office will be roughly equal to the size of the company's London workforce of around 9,000 people.
"Clearly we believe we're an office-based firm," Harrison said. Working together in-person fuels creativity and collaboration and allows people to learn from each other, she said.
"We do heavily believe the office has a huge part to play in the success of our business," she said.
Because of the pandemic, "what we've just learned is that the building really needs to be adaptable," Harrison said. "So we are really designing this with ultimate flexibility."
"I also think that nobody wants to just come to work to sit in rows and rows of desks," she added. "So gone I think are the days of rows of battery farms and desks bankers used to love. I don't think that's what bankers do love anymore, and certainly not the support staff."
"The office needs to be inspiring and it needs to pull people in," Harrison continued. "They want to come in because it's such a great working environment."