How GBE Energy Built a One-of-a-Kind Downtown Office

The trading world works in unique, unconventional ways, so it makes sense that Calgary-based energy trading firm GBE Energy’s office goes against the grain. When architects Anita Gunther and Dalton Kaun took on the design project in 2019, they explored the history of trading and what that history means for the place where trading happens.

“GBE creates value and generates value. We thought this interior needed to do the same,” says Gunther.

Inside the 8th Avenue S.W. office, Gunther and Kaun created multiple spaces, including a board room, an executive office and even a nap room. But the pièce de resistance is the “machine for trading” space, where GBE’s traders perform the tricky business of facilitating ever-changing deals. The machine for trading, designed to amplify the energy of the trading floor, is built within a single wooden framework that can be completely disassembled and reassembled should the company ever expand or relocate.

GBE Energy president Cory Paddock describes the office as “unafraid and honest. We’re unafraid to be contrarian and go against what is conventional.”

Because of the work-hard, play-hard nature of trading, Paddock wanted a healthy separation between work and play. The result is this dedicated space for trading to happen — the machine for trading is a purpose-built space made with integrated lighting and 12 trading modules.

As you enter the machine through the portal, there’s a distinct change in pace from the casual spaces in the office. You walk up a slight ramp to the machine’s elevated platform. Inside, the work modules border the space with a central counter for optimal communication and collaboration. This clearly signals that the machine is where GBE’s traders get ’er done.

The Portal

The entrance into the machine marks the transition between work and play, creating an energy shift as you pass through. It’s slightly narrow, with felt pieces to quiet any auditory disruptions. “We wanted it to feel very unconventional and maybe uncomfortable. The lighting strips in the floor shine up in your face as you’re walking onto the trade floor,” says Kaun.

Wood Louvres

For the framework, Gunther and Kaun used vertical slats of Baltic birch wood that open up to the rest of the office, creating a private, but unenclosed environment — the trade-floor energy can flow throughout the office.

Integrated Lighting

To enhance the idea of a single machine, lighting is incorporated throughout the space instead of using separate fixtures. LED strips run from the ceiling, connecting to plywood strips that mark off each two-metre working module.

Rundle Stone Exit

The step at the machine’s exit is made of rundle stone sourced from a quarry in Canmore. The contrast between the softness of the portal’s felt and the hardness of the exit’s stone emphasizes the dichotomy between entrance and exit.

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