[Architectural Design Project] Urban Fitness Centre

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[Year 3, 2nd Semester]

Design Brief Introduction

This module is a thematic studio based on the theme of “sustaining humanities’ architecture for people, place and time. Designing for sustainability has been a fundamental issue for architects in our time within global and regional contexts. In line with the current discourse on sustainability, It upholds the belief that architecture can create better places, that architecture can affect society and humanity, and that it can have a role in making a place civilized by making a community more livable.

Project Requirements:

Floor Area : 1800m2 - 2000m2
Building Height : 3-5

-   No residential proposals and No repetition of previous design studio projects.
-   Parking lot (based on Uniform Building By-Laws and Local requirements).
-   Compliance with city planning or local guidelines and requirements.
-   Shall incorporate the project theme ‘Sustaining Humanities’and architectural design theme ‘Discovering Malaysian architectural identity in the contemporary designs’.

Key Plan

Roof Plan

The design concept of the fitness centre initiated with two fundamental investigations.

When a site is sandwiched alongside two monumental office buildings and a highway within the context of a very structured and supervised administrative district, the resultant environment is a ghost town where most recreational activities are either illegal or not provided. As a development, how can we provide a controlled environment for recreational activities to activate the site on both weekdays and weekends?

Parkour as a programme is the first element of this proposal as the sport is considered illegal (within Putrajaya) without a controlled environment, and it acts as a uniting factor between architecture and the environment. Subsequently, a fitness centre that allows the user to train for the sport and casual fitness emerges. The ultimate aim of this fitness centre focuses on increasing the user’s performance both mentally and physically through providing spaces with different privacy for different levels of fitness and volumes that define spatial performances and free running.

To design a building for parkour & fitness, one must first understand the aspects of it – Strength, Endurance, Balance & Flexibility. Programmatically, spaces are catered for these fitness aspects when composing the building in the planning stage. Besides that, it is conceded that there will be users with different levels of fitness - new, progressing or skilled. Consequently, how can we design a building for people who have different levels of fitness and manifest it through architecture?

To solve these perplexities, the design for the fitness centre took off with three tectonic approaches to display the fitness levels and privacy of programmes- different levels of transparency reflected on the facade, manipulation of landscape + volumes, and gesture of the roof.

DISSECTED CUBOIDS + LANDSCAPE

Each programme is represented as it’s own peculiar cuboid. Different functions require different headrooms and area. Hence, when stacked or scattered, it results in an elevation with volumes of different height, length, and depth.

As a method to further develop the elevation, a design language expressed by parkour kinetics is used to dissect the cuboids, making each space distinctive and functional. The building form blends with the landscape, creating a manifestation of different fitness levels and difficulty of obstacles, creating an ambiguous condition which allows the building to look like part of the landscape. Concurrently developing the sectional relationship of the landscape, cuboids and volumetric experience of each space.

Programmatic studies of parkour

Parkour kinetics study

By scattering the programmes (building typologies) around the site, it indirectly implies a human scaled urban environment for the parkour enthusiasts to craft their own route based on their experience and level of skills.

Parkour Vignette #1

GLASS + FUNCTION + PRIVACY

Conceptual Axon

The simplest and most direct material to represent the privacy of the programme and level of fitness was to adopt glass as the material of the facade. Spaces with different fitness level require different levels of privacy. Psychologically, people who are new to the scene are less confident and comfortable compared to the ones who are experienced. To create a distinctive facade for each level of fitness, three types of glass are applied to create three types of spatial environment:

The different levels of transparency will allow the building to interact with the outside world differently in terms of visual as well as experience.

Entrance view at night

> Transparent glass for the users who are able to work out confidently while displaying their ability to the viewers outside of the building. It is also used to display the public programmes of this building.

> Opaque glass for the users who are new and shy, it is to allow them to work out in an environment they are comfortable with. For programmes such as office, guesthouse, and restrooms, it is a method to provide privacy and daylight.

> Alternating transparent and opaque glass for the users who are not so confident yet are improving in their fitness journey and also to create a sense of motion in the facade as drivers pass by the building along the highway.

> Sectional perspective that illustrates the different type of transparencies for different activities, and the interaction between space, programme and facade.

UNDULATING ROOF

Roof profile testing.gif

The repeating concave gestures of the roof is derived from the offset of headroom above the cuboids for people to run on, acting as the secondary shelter for the free runners. Each sunken curve also depicts an access, a portal or a passage.

The roof is a manifestation of equilibrium between the cuboids, landscape, and people, becoming the highlighting feature of the fitness centre.

3-Tier Exploded Axon to show roof canopy structures, parkour layered roof & main fitness spaces

This axon also shows the different types of transparency as well as the allocated programmes. Different transparencies also determine different types of fitness level and parkour level. For example, transparent spaces for the skilled parkour and fitness users have harder obstacles as well as workout spaces. And opaque spaces are for the parkour and fitness beginners hence the obstacles as well as fitness spaces will be less intense (refer to the sections below). Safety nets and railings are placed on the 2nd tier roof to ensure the safety of parkour users.