Auto Desk Make It Real

After the James Develin Make it Real challenge was assigned to our engineering class at school, my partner and I were extremely intrigued by the idea of designing a gym. Both being athletes we commonly come across the feeling that gyms are strictly performance base and lack the rehabilitation and injury prevention factors that are key to being a successful athlete. We loved hearing James talk about modularity within this project because we also commonly find gyms without options/flexibility for a workout, we feel that it is always either tied to a machine or free weights. Being able to create a solution to this is something that also drove us to participate in this contest. Along with tying in Jame's vision, we added some of our ideas to make the best gym within reason.

Some goals we had heading into this project:

• Modularity
• Immersive
• Research-Based Fitness and Rehabilitation
• Within the Philly Area
• Be able to adapt with Covid-19
• Community-Based Environment
• Simple

• Computer
• TinkerCad

First My Partner and I (Hunter Eschallier and David Cross) watched the webinar explaining the challenge. We noted some of the broad basic essentials that James Develin wanted for this project. When James said he would like this gym to be located in the "Philly Area" we knew the perfect place. With both of us living in the surrounding area, we discussed and decided that Conshohocken PA is a perfect town for this type of project. Conshohocken, just being outside of Philadelphia, is a developing city that is perfect for a gym/community center. This could accelerate the growth of the town as more and more attractions pop up. We located a lot on Zillow at 257 Isabella St, Plymouth Meeting, PA, 19462 (1.08 acre) available as of Jan 18th, 2021. After agreeing on this location we started to design the building its self.

In the brainstorming phase, we mapped out our lot that was found on Zillow. We took measurements to find the best fit for the building along with a parking lot. After measurements were taken on google earth we found that the best fit size for the building should be around 60x30 meters. When we knew the estimated size we were working with we started to build/design.

We added a pool along with a hot tub and cold tub for both exercise and recovery purposes on the left side of the building, this room also includes a sauna.

• Saunas help to invigorate those who use it.
• Cold Tubs have many benefits like easing sore and aching muscles, helps your central nervous system, limits the inflammatory response, decreases the effect of heat and humidity, trains your vagus nerve.
• Hot tubs before exercising can relax your body and loosen muscles, making exercise easier and reducing the risk of injury. A pre-exercise soak will also help improve performance.

On the right side of the building, we added the weight room, which includes a physical therapy office for trainers to occupy and assist athletes. In the center of the weight room is a turf strip where people can improve their speed and agility. The weight room its self is split in half, the left side containing cardio machines and the right with weights like machines, benchpress, squat-rack, free weights, etc. This room also includes an open area with the ability to adapt to anything like an area to hold a class, put more equipment, physical therapy, and many more possibilities.

In the center of the building are the locker rooms that contain lockers, bathrooms (toilets, sinks, and urinals), and showers towards the back.

The entrance is at the very front of the building and those who enter would be greeted by our front desk. They will have to be checked-in with a membership card and evaluated for Covid-19 by taking their temperature (If the Covid-19 virus is still at large). Both to the left and right are staircases to reach the second floor of the building. With one staircase on each side, this minimizes the traffic between people and reduces the probability of spreading the virus.

Designing the second floor we wanted to be able to add some spaces that can be used in a variety of ways. We added two large areas with the first being all turf and the second being 2 basketball courts. These two areas can be used for classes, team practices, Pick-Up games, individual training, and a lot more.

The Turf field located to the left is around 26x20 meters in size, although it is not big enough to hold official games it is large enough to host recreational games, also a perfect size to host events and rent out to other people. Those are just broad ideas with this concept and there are many more possibilities that we thought were perfect for adding to the modularity aspect of the challenge.

The Basketball courts located to the right also add to the idea of modularity by being another large area to hold activities. Besides the courts being full-sized and able to hold official games of basketball, it can second as another perfect sized area to host events and rent out to other people. Also added to the back wall is a set of collapsable bleachers that can be rolled out for seminars, training, or educational purposes.

These two areas serve as places to adapt to however they need to be used. We find this very important as it reduces limitations and allows freedom.

In the middle of this floor is a lounge area that contains vending machines (beverage and snack), arcade games, and couches with a T.V. and tables. This gives people the ability to relax and take a break from a workout or game.

After implementing all the ideas we had to create our dream gym, we tried to design the perfect appearance to go with it. We decided that we wanted to go with a simple look as a lot of curves and corners reduce the area(space) of the building. We added a lot of window area as we felt it gave the building more of an open feeling. We didn't want the gym to feel stuffy so along with windows in the front of the building, we added windows that span across each wall (minus the locker rooms) to be able to view the activities within each room.

We also wanted to leave space in areas like the hallways and stairwells for things to be added. Things like a portion of a track or lounges could be added to the hallways and the stairwells are large enough to add elevators or even more lounges. These are other areas that can adapt to whatever need is necessary or can be changed to ones liking.