Firstly i needed figure out what market my gym was targeting and what rooms are needed. I decided to target the average business person- because commonly in the past people were taking their lunch break down in the area and exercising. It made sense to therefore create a gym that wasn't designed to have that 'lets just get massive' atmosphere. It must have a positive, non judgemental feeling. Having a high level of interaction seen between the users will help assist in achieving this. There's something about exercising in groups or among other people that feels good.
My gym will also hold 'learn to swim' classes for young children. Parents will have the opportunity to watch their children and at the same time fit in their 30 minutes/hour of exercise, making their ever busy lives slightly easier.
What rooms will my gym need? Here is a page showing my ideas, maybe not all rooms will be included but this gives me an understanding of what options i have:
Now from here i explored many different avenues in an attempt to produce a form that worked. Initially i was working with ideas that seemed to lead to dead ends. I started by splitting my building into a possible 3 levels. This is a page showing a possible arrangement:
I was attempting sectional massing models to give me a sense of the form in elevation, this proved useful but was easy to follow to literally and get stuck on a boring rigid and limited design. Here is an example or some draft work:
This was leading me to believe the gym had to be designed around a form similar to this conceptual sketch:
This then pushed me to think about how i could get people to move up and down this structure. A central core would be needed, it could hold the elevators, fire escapes, toilets, bathrooms, and service rooms/ power board room. A rough design i came up with can be seen below:
I then decided i would like to play with the form of the buildings exterior, here is 2 options i came up with:
I then realised that each level could be independent from the rest. This would make it possible to rotate freely and re orientate itself to best suit where the most people are located inside the level. It also made me think about patterns the building would create if sections were missing from each level. Here is a possible form:
Having sections missing from each level also gives the opportunity to 'shift the blocks' move module to module to fill in gaps and shift up and down levels:
I then decided to simplify my gym requirements into something that would fit on one level and still provide users with a complete workout opportunity. I broke my gym up into the main areas and referred to my precinct study, what was a possible floor layout that would suit both male and female users while taking inconsideration that everyone is different:
Looking at this arrangement made me see the sense in the circle! having a circular building would make it possible for modules to slide on top of one another and enable the building to rotate freely around 360 degrees.
Deciding to Move back to my first circular design with the rooms being placed around a core, i could see the possibilities opening up to me. I decided to record some early ideas that i refined for my presentation:
For this idea to work i need to figure out the dimensions of my modules as they will form the rooms and movable sections to my building. Here are some ideas for the weights room; i need to consider how much gear will be needed in each room and allow for room for people to move freely at all times; also i was able to take into account which types of gym gear and exercises would best face inward or outward:
I calculated based on my precinct study that i would need each room to be around 12 meters long and 6 meters wide. This along with transport restrictions influenced the size of my modules:
Also now that i have reduced my rooms to one level there is no need for a core and i can replace it with the pool - fitting with my idea that parents could overlook their children while they themselves can exercise. Having this circular template also prompts visual interaction between users from one side of the gym across the pool to the other.
No comments:
Post a Comment