Transcendent Wellness: Creative gym design beyond the realm of physical fitness

Transcendent Wellness: Creative gym design beyond the realm of physical fitness

In a branding context, cultural ideas of wellness are often seen reflected in the types of products oriented towards this space, and how they are packaged and marketed. There are the minimalist styles of ‘clean’ beauty, and language or products catering to holistic ideas of inside-outside wellness becoming increasingly popular in the market. Beyond branding and products however, the physical spaces of one of the traditional zones of wellness - gyms themselves, and the materials, colours, and visual styles used within – are an even larger, immersive representation of how wellness and fitness is understood, experienced, and attained. These spaces, as a kind of temple to wellness, add yet another layer to this cultural story of wellness that goes beyond the external body - something particularly striking given their primary purpose is for physical training. Understanding the design trends in this space, and how to use these visual and sensory cues, is key developing cultural and personal narratives of what wellness means and how we demonstrate it.

Third Space

In London alone there is a wide range of examples of high-end gyms pushing the boundaries of what health and fitness means. The Equinox gym in Mayfair is one interesting example to explore. Housed in a converted bank building, the space here is communicating not specifically fitness by way of muscle tone, but in fact two visions of personal financial success and status, blending historic and contemporary visions of wealth. In part the space resembles an old-fashioned (likely men-only) social club; the entryway is set amidst grandiose green marble pillars and filled with an abundance of dark corners to retreat to as if to take an important private meeting. Preserving the former bank’s original interior features such as the marble pillars and vaulted ceilings adheres to traditional sources of wealth creation through finance and trade going back to the 19th century. These professions, and the possession of “old money” remain high status and symbols of desirable wealth, but at the same time in the past decade we have seen the rise of new types of status professions and architectural styles that accompany them.

Equinox St James

The gym itself, and the changing rooms, juxtapose the bank’s traditional formality with modern, sleek materials such as slate walls. The minimal modernism of the purpose-built changing areas speaks to the rise of wealth and status created through technology, and the aesthetic that has accompanied it (think of everything from the MacBook to the modernist lair used in the film Ex-Machina). These spaces appear as though the fantasy home of a contemporary tech-millionaire lair – it could serve well as a Bat Cave set underneath a mansion. Ultimately by housing physical fitness spaces in these interiors, members are embodying both the goals of outer self-improvement as well as social and financial attainment. Wellness in this sense has become about more than even holistic physical and mental health, to encompass the optimization of one’s life overall. And ultimately this is reinforced by the branding and language used by Equinox, referencing “pursuing goals” and “unlocking your highest performance” that goes well beyond outward physical fitness to a sense of social and professional achievement.

Equinox St James

Third Space gyms, another exclusive private chain, and elements of the 1Rebel and Karve Pilates studios, all bring in even more sleek modernism into the fitness world. Drawing on futuristic visions of tech-enabled enhancement and advancement, theses spaces use dramatic angular geometric forms and contrast between bright light and dark spaces to appear almost like the warehouses holding servers for bitcoin mining, as if this technological innovation can be part of the biological world as well. Alongside these, the use of sleek modern materials such as brushed or laser cut stainless steel and polished concrete walls and floors communicate a pared-back industrialism in the digital age. These design cues reinforce a cultural trend towards tech-enhanced wellness, in which peak human can be advanced through scientific precision and ever-evolving tools (for example Supersapiens wearables or the proliferation of sleep trackers and heart-rate monitoring watches). Exercising in these spaces is visually and sensorially akin to being placed within a tech-enhanced future; they are spaces that suggest another kind of self-optimization: that they can help you go beyond ‘normal’, earth and nature bound biological human fitness, to ‘level up’ to a kind of post-human being.

1Rebel

Third Space

Karve Club

While the expansion of wellness to incorporate more than physical fitness is a clear trend, futuristic enhancement is not the only way forward. There are varying ways this sense of holistic wellness is being thought about, creating sub-cultures that require their own products and spaces. In a slightly different vein to the examples above, Blok, a studio gym based in East London encompasses an outlook suited to the industries that have made Shoreditch their home. In line with their language focused on “creativity” and “movement” rather than “fitness” Blok’s interiors juxtapose modernist industrial materials and styles with aesthetically decaying vintage elements and warm hues such as brick walls and brown leather punching bags suspended by chains. Particularly in the Clapton studio, which blends elements of traditional, rustic workmanship, modern materials that appear to incorporate plant-based sustainability, and industrial factory heritage, soft and hard lines and surfaces, and old and new elements suggest a creative transcendence of time with ongoing interplay between past present and future. These combinations, embracing imperfection and change, these spaces suggest wellness as blended with creativity and developing a unique perspective and lifestyle.

As part of creative fulfilment is a sense of spiritual fulfilment as well. One studio room is a barre-lined cathedral-like space, with light streaming in through the industrial windows onto aged, smoky mirrors. The lighting used also adds to this sense of transcendence and extra-temporal state of being. Aluminium and bright cement walled studios are illuminated with natural light filtered through frosted glass, and extra lighting adding soft hues of pink and blue, ultimately creating the effect of a contemporary meditation space or a James Turrell light room. The effect is again reproduced in the Shoreditch studio, as one traverses a long narrow hall with bright illumination at the end, which opens out into the class studios – you might say it is a gym equivalent of ‘going into the light’. Ultimately alongside their functional purpose, the interiors here create a space to find a sense of spiritual transcendence and escape from the always-on, modern urban environments outside.

Blok Clapton

Overall the immersive brand and lifestyle experience of these gyms reflect how understandings of wellness and health are changing culturally, and how these cultural narratives can be encapsulated in a three-dimensional space. Building on a long-running trend of increasingly holistic understandings of health, we see that physical health and fitness is becoming interconnected with what might be called social health, while at the same time aligning with tech-inspired narratives of self-optimization and modernist elevation of our traditional sense of selfhood and purpose-fulfillment - however that is defined by an individual. From a branding and business perspective, this also suggests an opportunity to integrate a wider range of offerings, including products (Peloton provides an example for the branded clothing line) and activities tailored to social settings (such as Blok introducing cultural and culinary partnerships for a level of exclusive membership). From a design perspective it’s worth considering designing for activities beyond the traditional functionality of exercise, changing, and the occasional juice bar, to more flexible use spaces throughout for engagement that lasts longer than the functional in-and-out visits of a traditional gym. And this can extend beyond gyms to other wellness brands, such as athletic wear retail spaces or nutritional supplement brands. As wellness becomes about more than the function of weights and cardio, design for these brands should take into account the broader social, cultural, and psychological goals that are part of the overall brand, creating spaces that help clients imagine this wider attainment while exercising their way to an ideal self.

(All images from brands’ websites/social media)

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