The Live Studio
An exciting career change prompted our client to approach us to re-purpose a dilapidated garage into an exercise studio. Sitting right at the entrance to their house, the garage provided an unsightly gateway to the property and made the route to the house ambiguous. The brief was to replace the garage with an exercise studio for up to 12 clients plus storage space as well as to provide a more welcome and logical entrance to the main property.
The extensive trees and shrubbery on the site leant itself to creating a lightweight timber framed building, just glass and wood, where the beauty of the garden penetrated into and through the studio space. We wanted the building to feel like a pavilion, where it could be open on all sides, as though exercising out in the open. We selected a green oak which would weather over time to mirror the surrounding trees. The building is almost floating, entirely transparent apart from the silvery oak frame and with delicate planting softening the border with the ground. Throughout the year, the users can be fully immersed in the exterior elements and notice the changing seasons as the surrounding garden evolves.
The client wanted specific adaptions in order to train clients online as well as in person. These had to be carefully incorporated so as not to upset the tranquil balance of the space. We designed hidden shelving from birch ply to store gym apparatus out of site and conceal the extensive audio visual equipment required. A fully mirrored wall was essential for the classes but also reflected the surrounding garden to provide the feeling of being immersed in the landscape. During Pilates and Yoga classes, clients enjoy views of the sky through a large rooflight positioned over the heart of the space.
We worked closely with Belderbos Landscapes to ensure our vision for the site was fully realised. The new building now enhances the entrance, drawing visitors down a newly landscaped entrance courtyard which ingrains the building into the surroundings and leads one intuitively through the grounds to the main house.
