Project
Sohar International Bank
Sohar International was founded in 2007 as Bank Sohar and took its current name in 2018, before its 2023 merger with HSBC Bank Oman roughly doubled its scale overnight. The bank asked for two branch identities under one system — a conventional hall and an Islamic banking wing — sharing the same ceiling, tile, and reception geometry but distinguished by palette.
Sohar International — Conventional Branch
A cooler, more graphic register for everyday banking.
A faceted grey-and-white reception podium greets visitors beneath a black perforated ceiling strung with halo pendant lights, setting a cooler, more graphic register than Sohar International’s Islamic branch next door. Slim orange glass dividers break up the teller line without walling it off, and a rust-toned rug anchors a grey seating cluster at the room’s centre. Behind the hall, a private office wrapped floor-to-ceiling in vertical wood slats trades the orange accent for a warmer, more contained material.
Sohar International — Islamic Branch
The same architecture, retold in navy and scalloped texture.
The Islamic branch shares its neighbour’s faceted reception desk and ring-pendant ceiling, but trades grey for a navy wall built from overlapping scalloped panels, like fish scales pulled taut across the banking hall. Cobalt chairs and a deep blue sofa replace the conventional branch’s grey upholstery, carrying that navy through the seating as well as the walls. An ATM alcove finished in the same navy, lit by thin gold light strips, extends the palette all the way to the self-service corridor.
