Gym Design Challenge

Hello! My name is Mason and I'm a high school senior. I was excited to participate in this challenge and I hope you enjoy the outcome!

The problem posed in this challenge was to design a gym in accordance with James Develin's requests. To begin this challenge, I created a word map to represent several of James's ideas. This allowed me to easily refer to them throughout the design process in order to thoroughly incorporate his ideas.

A few things that James heavily highlighted were to incorporate a rehabilitation center and overall modularity within the gym. These were two central ideas that the design was revolved around. I strove to design a gym that would promote what you would expect, such as health and wellness, while also incorporating distanced cells as a rehabilitation center.

To begin my research, I thought the best place to start would be with a general floor plan. To start this, I researched the space needed to properly and comfortably workout. This would serve as the basis of the floor plan and the entire design. Taking into account Develin's request for modularity, I allowed for space between the workout modules. While there is an aisleway between rows to provide for proper social distancing, this is not the case within the rows themselves. In order to optimize the gym for a time where full functionality is a viable option, I believed that it wouldn't be ideal for this separation to occur between every module. However, in the case of a pandemic, every other module could be closed off in order to properly distance each active module.

The main appeal of a gym is access to heavy equipment that many don't have access to normally. Taking this into account, much more room was dedicated to the heavy equipment rather than the light equipment. Additionally, I had an idea for the light equipment that I haven't seen done before. I designed a kiosk that would deal out light weight equipment that isn't as commonly used. This allows workers to properly and efficiently sanitize equipment after each use. Additionally, this kiosk would also serve as a "sign-in and sign-out" checkpoint for heavy equipment. This would drastically improve the efficiency of the sanitization crew, allowing for a safer and more effective experience.

One minute detail about the design is the allocation of the restrooms, hot/cold tubs, and showers into one general area in order to minimize extensive plumbing.

Another note that I briefly touched upon in my research was a multi-tier membership plan that would include different benefits (mainly the rehabilitation area) for higher tiers. I based these ideas off of other membership models used in other gyms.

*Side notes*

While originally brainstorming, I made the design with the idea that 56,385 square feet would be available (based off of my research regarding the size of an average gym). I later backed this down to about 30,000 square feet considering the urban location and limited lot size. I proportionately transferred each calculation made in the original brainstorming phase to the final design. Also, many of my ideas present in my notebook were drastically edited throughout the design process, but that just shows that flowing nature of the process itself!

For the sake of the model, I based everything off of a one story, rectangular building. I made it a 30,000 square foot building in order to convey my ideas while using a size that wasn't entirely unreasonable for Philadelphia. I allowed room for a smaller greeting area with a desk where staff will check for membership. To the right of the entrance is the equipment kiosk and sign-in/sign-out sheets for the heavy equipment. Straight ahead is the light equipment area which leads directly into the heavy equipment area. For the sake of the model, I included treadmills, weight lifting benches, and stationary bicycles in the heavy equipment area.

As elaborated upon in the previous section, modularity was a key part of this design. The aisleways allow for at least 6 feet between each row. The key to this design was to maximize efficiency when fully running (no pandemic) and to keep proper distancing when appropriate (in the presence of a pandemic). Based off of this, not every module is distanced, but adjustments can easily distance each active module. With the sides already being clear, the only necessity would be to limit and spread apart occupants in each row.

Straight past these areas are the rehabilitation area and restrooms (not much attention was put into the restroom design considering that importance of other aspects). The rehabilitation area is equipped with an array of benches for the physical therapists to work with. There is also the inclusion of hot and cold tubs in the left corner of the rehabilitation area.

The most major change made between the brainstorming and modeling phases was alteration of the floor plan. I limited the bathrooms and water fountains to one corner rather than spreading them throughout the building. I also limited the equipment kiosks to one rather than two. I also allowed for more greeting/rest areas within the final design. Other than that, most of the final design stays true to the original brainstorming.