Case Study

Designing a Secure, Scalable Multi-Tenant Smart Building Network

A 375,000 sq ft, next-generation commercial workplace designed to support modern businesses with intelligent, flexible and wellness-focused environments. As an amenity-rich community, the campus brings together a diverse mix of organisation, from creative studios to large enterprises, in a single, dynamic setting, blending high-quality workspaces with shared facilities and vibrant retail and leisure areas. 

campus reading

In this story

Formation Tech were engaged to redesign and deliver the connectivity platform underpinning the building's transformation from a single-tenant legacy environment into a fully connected, multi-tenant smart campus. The project enabled flexible tenant occupancy, unified building and landlord services onto one resilient network, and provided the foundation for intelligent building management and future growth, delivered end-to-end within a tight two-month timeline. 

Challenges

A Legacy Single-Tenant Network Facing a Multi-Tenant Future

The campus faced a major transformation as the building moved from a single-tenant legacy environment to a modern multi-tenant operation. The existing network simply was not designed to support multiple occupants. For the landlord, the requirement was not just to add capacity, but to build a flexible infrastructure that could accommodate an unknown number of future tenants, and allow floors to be sold, subdivided or reconfigured without disrupting connectivity for anyone already in occupation.

At the same time, the building required a secure, resilient network to support a wide range of landlord-managed services. CCTV, access control, smart building systems, Wi-Fi across public spaces, EV charging, digital signage, AV, lifts and other operational systems all needed to sit on infrastructure that could be trusted to run 24/7. A modern commercial campus is, in practice, a connected building first and a workplace second, and the connectivity layer needed to reflect that reality.

The project came with two additional constraints that materially shaped the engagement. The landlord operated without an internal IT team, meaning the full responsibility for design, delivery and ongoing operation needed to sit with the chosen partner. And the timeline was driven by redevelopment milestones and incoming tenant move-ins, leaving no room for a phased multi-quarter build. What was needed was a complete redesign of the connectivity and operational systems, ready to support a new era of smart building operations from day one.

Solution

A Future-Ready, Multi-Tenant Smart Building Network

To meet the campus's requirements, Formation Tech delivered a full end-to-end solution combining consultancy, design, build and ongoing managed support. The engagement began with a detailed discovery phase, working alongside asset managers, M&E consultants, architects and the wider project team to understand both current needs and future possibilities, the foundation for a network designed to grow with the building rather than be retrofitted later.

The tenant network was designed as a flexible tenant fibre platform capable of supporting unknown future demand. Formation Tech delivered a high-performance backbone using over 9km of single-mode fibre and established a central meet-me room as the core connectivity hub for all tenants and service providers. Crucially, the design treats the building's floors as reconfigurable units, so large floors can be broken down into smaller offices, or smaller offices combined back together, without requiring fundamental changes to the underlying network.

Alongside the tenant network, Formation Tech built a separate landlord network to support all smart building and operational systems. This included installing dual firewalls, deploying 40 switches, and placing over 20 Wi-Fi access points throughout the building. Secure VLAN segmentation and routing were configured to support multiple services concurrently, keeping CCTV, access control, smart building systems, EV charging, EPOS, digital signage, AV, and lift systems logically separated while running on a single unified infrastructure. The team coordinated closely with CCTV, access control, electrical, and catering contractors to bring the full range of building systems online together.

The project was delivered under a tight two-month timeline, requiring rapid surveying, design and fast-tracked implementation to ensure the building could operate as a multi-tenant environment from day one. Formation Tech provided full project management throughout, coordinating stakeholders, managing vendor delivery, and ensuring smooth transition and go-live support.

Outcomes

A Secure, Resilient and Highly Flexible Network

The campus now operates on a secure, resilient and highly flexible connectivity platform that underpins the entire site. The new infrastructure enables the landlord to subdivide and reconfigure office space with ease, allowing large floors to be broken down into smaller offices without requiring changes to the underlying network. That flexibility has significantly improved the marketability of the building, and simplified the onboarding of new tenants as the site continues to grow and evolve.

All landlord-managed systems, from CCTV, access control and building management to Wi-Fi, EV charging, AV and digital signage, now operate reliably over a single, unified network. With Formation Tech providing ongoing remote management and support, the campus remains secure and fully operational at all times, with no internal IT team required to carry the operational burden. The managed service relationship gives the landlord the benefit of an expert team behind the network without the cost or complexity of building one in-house.

The solution has also created a future-ready foundation. As new technologies emerge and smart building requirements evolve, the campus has the connectivity and operational platform to adopt and expand, ensuring the site remains a modern, connected destination for businesses of all sizes. For a development of this scale and ambition, that combination of flexibility, resilience and managed expertise is what makes the connectivity layer a genuine business enabler rather than just a utility.

command-line-1

9 km

Of fibre installed throughout the building

base-station-line

40

Network switches and 20+ Wi-Fi access points deployed

cast-fill

100+

CCTV cameras securely connected

100% customer satisfaction

100%

Customer satisfaction

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