Make It Real: Green Future Fitness-Studio

In this instructable I'm going to show you how the green future fitness studio I designed for the Make it Real Student Design Challange #2 can be actually built.

Especially in our fast-paced times, it is important that a building is innovatively designed so that it lasts a long time and has as little impact on the environment as possible, if not even giving something back. The revolutionary thing about this gym is that it produces its own energy where it can. Find out exactly how it works in step12.

It has such a special design because the tower is mainly there to hold the wind turbine on top. What is special about the wind turbine is that it is on the roof. Therefore, it can rotate no matter where the wind comes from, which can be quite handy in Switzerland, since Switzerland is partly on the polar front. So the wind can sometimes come from the south, sometimes from the northwest and sometimes from the west.

To save energy, the windows are double-glazed. This keeps the heat inside in winter and outside in summer. Nevertheless, I chose large windows, because I wanted to make the room very bright to keep the consumption of the lamps as low as possible.

To get this project off the ground I read up on the basic guidelines of a gym here and here.

• Fusion 360
• Some time

For this I went on Google Maps and searched in Switzerland near the city of Lucerne for a good place. Important to me was the accessibility by bus or other public transportation systems. I found out that there's a bus every seven minutes. Also there's a lot of space nearby for parking or to do some events.

I found it in an area between the city and the industrial district, where there are already many sports facilities and a gym would be a great addition. There, not only athletes from the surrounding facilities can do strength training in addition to their workouts, but also people who work nearby.

Then I added a closer photo in Fusion 360 to build the gym on top of it to make it more real. If you look at the second picture you can see the area x where the gym is going to be.

I consider it realistic to have about 80 to 100 people working out at the gym at the same time after work. This calculation mainly takes into account people who live nearby. Working people are then added to this. In terms of members, the gym will quite likely get to 500.

Safety is very important, as accidents can quickly occur on the construction site.To avoid this, the construction site must be cordoned off so that no unauthorized persons enter the construction site. In addition, everyone on the site must wear a safety helmet and also shoes, which are very hard at the tips to protect the toes.

There is a fence where the building will be later, because this zone is quite dangerous. Then there is a zone for the deposits, which are created by digging for the foundation and can be used later for storage of weatherproof materials. The zone for equipment means that the working equipment can be parked there after work. The zone for toilets and the break is extra, because there the located people must not see in risk. The safety zone is cordoned off with barrier tape.

First of all it's important to define the building area. I decided to use a round design which has a diameter of 25 meters. This makes an area of 490.9 square meters.

For the foundation, I chose shallow foundations and there the subcategory of a stripe foundation. This because it uses less material then a foundation plate and it's very common to built a house with this technique. It's possible because the place where it's built is in central Switzerland and there are no earthquakes or really strong winds. The advantage of a shallow foundation is the safe of material due to a stable ground.

Foundations are often made of concrete, which is why I joined this idea. In the case of concrete, it should be noted that it must not endanger the soil, water and air. The materials from which it is made should have the highest possible environmental friendliness. This ensures the environmental compatibility.

The foundation is - logically - under the building and you can't see it from the outside. There are certain cutouts, which is why you come to the conclusion that the area of the gym (490.9 square meters) is about 60 percent filled with concrete. Because of frost resistance it's necessary to dig 0.8 meters deep into the ground. It's not necessary to make all of the foundation 0.8 meters deep. It's a mixture of the stripe foundation and the point foundation. The area of the point foundation is 0.8 meters deep while the stripes are just about 0.4 meters deep. From that 60 percent about 20 percent are part of the point foundation.

When it comes to the costs, it's important to know what's exactely in the concrete. I found a great description for that here. It's in german, but maybe you want to translate it.
Concrete consists out of cement, water and gravel, sand or similar things. The ratio between cement and additives is 1:4. For an area of (490.9 square meters * 0.4 meters * 0.6 + 117.8 * 0.2 =) 141.36 cubic meters and a weight of 480 kilogram of cement per cubic meter you need (141.36 cubic meters * 2400 kilogram per square meter / 5 =) 67 853 kilogram of cement for the foundation. Important is, that the building material is mostly from this region. I found a supplier that sells cement from a region in Switzerland, which is why the transport distance is very short and CO2 emissions can thus be saved. A pack of cement which weights 25 kilogram costs about 5 US-Dollars which makes a total price for the cement of (67 853 kilogram / 25 kilogram * 5 US-Dollar =) 13 570.6 US-Dollar - and this is a swiss price... :). To calculate the water needed you can multiply the 67 853 kilogram whith 0.4 which is the average value for chemical influence and mechanical wear. That's how you get about
27 141 liters of water. The other 4/5 of the weight comes from the additives which cost about 11 US-Dollar per 25 kilogram. You end up for that with (67 853 kilogram * 4 / 25 * 11 =) 119 421 US-Dollar.
In total you pay about 132 991.6 US-Dollar for the material of the foundation. And it looks more or less like in the picture above - now you definitely know this product is made in Switzerland 😉.

This takes about 10 days to be built with 5 people.

It is important to think about the elevator early as it will be designed into the center of the gym. It should be able to serve each floor and is intended primarily for the bar and rehabilitation center. In addition, I believe that many gym visitors prefer to use stairs because they are in "sports mode".

The 3000 elevator developed by Schindler can carry 9 people at a time, which at a tower height of 50 meters makes 12 people per minute from the very bottom to the very top. Since that makes little more than 10% of people per minute, I need two elevators. This makes 24 people per minute transportable. Each elevator costs estimated 55 000 US-Dollar that makes 110 000 US-Dollar in total for the elevators. In this case the costs for the installation are already included.

It should be noted that a space of 1.2 meters must be kept free under the elevator and a space of 3.6 meters must be kept free above the elevator.

In the sketch above you can see the shaft of the two elevators. From the given table I could see that the shaft must have the dimensions 1.6 x 2.1 meters. Outside the tower is drawn with a radius of 2.75 meters.

The tower is 50 meters high, because the elevator can easily reach up there, the view is best for the bar visitors and the wind turbine should have free space, because the wind is more undisturbed up there than on the ground.

In this step, I would like to write about the framework. This should not only hold the building, but also give it a unique look. That's why I make sure I don't just bury it, but give it an appealing structure. For this purpose, the circular structure is divided into six pieces of equal size, which will later be used as a guide for the rooms. It is well known that if you do not put walls on a stable piece, it brings a lot of extra work and costs. Therefore, I thought that sixths are fine enough and made sure that, with the exception of the first floor, all room partitions are also built only on the structure.

Here you can find the link for the base of my calculation.
If we assume, that the steel has a density of 7850 kg/m^3, we get a price of 593302 US-Dollar. This includes the costs of the material, the three floors and also the costs for the people who build it.

The walls of the building cost a total of about 155 509 US-Dollars. This also includes the cost of labor. The walls are made out of Bricks which have the great advantage of being quite climate-friendly, insulate and balance heat. I calculated this with the help from this source.

In this step I'm making the room layout. It is important that the lower floor should not only be an arrival, but can also be used commercially. So I was thinking that a sporting goods store could take a lease on this floor. On the one hand, this would provide a long-term source of income that would reduce the gym's membership fees, and on the other hand, visitors to the store would become aware of the gym and members could quickly buy something if needed and then get started with their workout. The room at the top right, just like actually the entire lower area belong to the store. The rear room should be a storage room. The reception of the gym should not be missing on the first floor in any case. In addition, the gym has a small storage room on the first floor where additional equipment, spare parts or toolboxes can be stored. At the reception there is an additional sofa corner so that visitors can wait for their training partners or have a chat.

For the construction of the building I need a scaffold, the cost of which I got from this source. The scaffold to built it costs about 680 US-Dollar for 5 Weeks. The estimated time for this project is 32 weeks which makes the costst for the scaffold to be 4352 US-Dollar.

The focus in the selection of the fitness equipment was that it can produce electricity, so that the gym is as independent as possible from the rest of the power grid. If the gym produces more electricity than it needs - hopefully - it feeds it into the grid. Also thanks to this subsidy, the membership fees should again be lower. As will be seen in the next two steps, I have looked here to consider both aspects - that is, rehabilitation and fitness.

All devices together cost around 44 500 US-Dollar.

I uploaded the link for the 3D models on Thingiverse.

Here, rehabilitation should be the first priority, which is why there is equipment here, which is especially typical for a rehabilitation center. Nevertheless, the gym guests can also use the material. What makes this floor special is that members have the option to have their own fitness and nutrition plan put together. Members also meet personal trainers here. Also, this floor offers a place to go for help with using the equipment and also with messages that address the equipment.

On the second floor, fitness comes first. Therefore, here is the equipment, which is more typical for a gym than for a rehabilitation center. However, this is only in one half. On the other, there are changing rooms with toilets, a wellness room with a sauna and two whirlpools, as well as a bar where you can get refreshments after your workout.

The wellness area is expected to cost close to 25 000 US-Dollar.

At the top of the tower is not only a windmill, but also still a bar or restaurant - depending on your opinion. From up there (50 meters high) you have a beautiful view of the surrounding area, which here includes the outskirts of Lucerne, the residential community near this site, the large companies, the forest and the soccer stadium.

The restaurant is not only for the members of the gym, but for everyone who wants to enjoy a beautiful view in a family environment. Besides the "standard" food, which is offered in practically every restaurant, there are also many smoothies, which contain many vitamins. Thus, athletes have everything they need after their workout.

The restaurant's interior, including the kitchen, is expected to cost 20 000 US-Dollars.

In the gym, electricity is produced with the help of solar, wind and muscle power. This electricity is intended to make the gym independent of other sources and also feed power into the grid. All this happens from the first floor, where you can read the power and power consumption.

Not only the ergometer produces electricity, but everything where you can hang a gear wheel on it somehow. So only the weights do not produce electricity.

The idea is that the wind turbine produces a lot of electricity on stormy days, while the solar on the roof produces a lot of electricity on very sunny and hot days when there is hardly any wind. Thus, the gym has its own electricity to consume throughout.

All steps that describe how something is built is a milestone. It is important that the shell is built first. So first the foundation is built before the framework is placed on it. Next, the exterior walls are raised with cutouts for the windows, then the interior walls. The tower is finished and the wind turbine is placed on it. Then the solar goes on the roof and the windows are put in. Finally, the furnishing takes place. In parallel with the construction process, you can look for a sports store to rent the lowest floor.

In this project, materials are installed, which are aimed at environmental friendliness and durability.

Foundation: 132 992 $
Elevator: 110 000 $
Framework: 593 302 $
Walls: 155 509 $
Scaffold: 4 352 $
Fitness equipment: 44 500 $
Wellness: 25 000 $
Restaurant: 20 000 $
The construction worker also cost something which is about 200 000 $

= 1 285 655 $

This value can vary up to 10%.