In the second part of our series showcasing best practice in health club design and architecture, we take a look around the world and spotlight four of our favourites
INVITATION ONLY Fitness First Gravity, Singapore Fitness First recently unveiled its ‘invitation-only’ health club concept, Gravity, with the first location due to open later this year in the CapitaGreen building in Singapore’s central business district. Membership costs around £300 a month plus a £1,500 joining fee.
The US$7.3m club has been designed by Nick Gray and Studio HBA, a division of hospitality design firm HBA. The theme of the six points of Gravity – wellness, vitality, lifestyle, structure, performance and equilibrium – is echoed in subtle design cues around the club, represented by the hexagon motifs including on the ceiling and floors.
Meanwhile, a strong part of the design brief was to maximise the space, and particularly the outdoor space. This is in keeping with the overall CapitaGreen building which, designed by Pritzker Laureate Toyo Ito, has been created to be like a plant growing towards the sky, with lush greenery enveloping the building.
Alongside the outdoor pool area and deck, with its view of the CBD skyline, the Gravity club therefore incorporates a yoga deck for sunrise yoga.
Gravity’s hexagon motif represents the brand’s six points of health focus
The great outdoors: The pool offers a panoramic view of Singapore CBD’s skyline, and there’s also a yoga deck for sunrise yoga classes
HOME FROM HOME Aspria Uhlenhorst, Hamburg, Germany It’s hard to choose one club from the Aspria portfolio on which to focus – all are market leaders in terms of concept, design and delivery – but on this occasion we’ve chosen Aspria Uhlenhorst, Hamburg.
Uhlenhorst is a redevelopment of the 100-year-old Klipper club, representing a €25m investment. Aspria used a local Hamburg-based architect for the basic building and a British interior design company, SparcStudio, for some of the fit-out work. The rest of the design and specification work was carried out internally by the Aspria team.
The club – encompassing hotel, gym, pool and spa – feels almost ‘aspirational home’ in design. Both floors have large windows looking out over the gardens, and the colour scheme is gentle – browns, creams, lots of wood. There’s a flow between gym and recreational, non-workout space: an open doorway links the first floor area of the gym with the restaurant, and there are leather sofas, standard lamps and even a pool table encroaching into the gym space. Huge, gilt-framed mirrors add glamour to the free weight and functional areas.
Membership costs €135 a month.
At Aspria Uhlenhorst in Hamburg, Germany, the club interiors mix sheer glamour with ‘aspirational home’ comfort
At Aspria Uhlenhorst in Hamburg, Germany, the club interiors mix sheer glamour with ‘aspirational home’ comfort
At Aspria Uhlenhorst in Hamburg, Germany, the club interiors mix sheer glamour with ‘aspirational home’ comfort
HIT THEM FOR SIX Pure Fitness, California Tower, Hong Kong Occupying 25,000sq ft over six floors, this new HK$30m (£2.5m) Pure Fitness club in the central business district of Hong Kong opened in April 2015.
Designed by Elaine Jamieson from Positive Partnership, its design is high-end in keeping with its location. The design vision is industrial urban chic with elements of cool sophistication – bare concrete and raw steel with a touch of glamour, and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.
The challenge of operating across so many floors was addressed with a new internal staircase, which has become a major design feature that’s integrated all elements of the gym. The relatively small area of each floor assists in giving the club a boutique feel.
Also incorporated is what’s said to be the world’s first 270-degree Les Mills Immersive Fitness studio. Membership costs HK$1,119 (£95) a month for Pure Fitness California Tower, or HK$1,499 (£125) for all Pure Fitness and Yoga locations in Asia – plus joining fee.
The club debuts a 270-degree Les Mills Immersive Fitness studio
The small floor areas on each level lend themselves to a boutique gym feel
MAKING A SPLASH Metropolitan Eurobuilding, Madrid, Spain This 4,000sq m club was designed by architect Esteban Becerril in line with other Metropolitan clubs, with a brief to create spaces where design and innovation play a crucial role, but without detracting from the need to make the member feel at home.
Unique design elements of the urban club include a 500sq m sandy beach terrace. There’s also a 500sq m spa – the wet areas of Metropolitan clubs are a key design focus – and 400sq m of changing room facilities alongside the 500sq m gym.
Membership costs from €70 a month.
making a splash
Members can relax on a
500sq m sandy beach terrace
The wet areas of Metropolitan clubs are a key design focus
NOMINATE YOUR CLUB
Think your club is worthy of inclusion in our series? Drop us an email with a few photos: [email protected]
Active Blackpool is deploying Cornerstone Connect, a new digital interface allowing
disparate information from multiple systems to be aggregated into one dataset, to support
its focus on reducing health inequalities and improving healthy life expectancy. [more...]
Panatta brought together four of the most influential figures in bodybuilding history on the
stage of RiminiWellness 2026: Phil Heath, Lee Haney, Ronnie Coleman and Hany Rambod. [more...]
+ More featured suppliers
COMPANY PROFILES
PSLT Ltd
PSLT Fitness Solutions manufacture, remanufacture and buy back commercial gym equipment. [more...]
ukactive
ukactive is the UK’s leading trade body for the physical activity sector, bringing together more tha [more...]
In the second part of our series showcasing best practice in health club design and architecture, we take a look around the world and spotlight four of our favourites
INVITATION ONLY Fitness First Gravity, Singapore Fitness First recently unveiled its ‘invitation-only’ health club concept, Gravity, with the first location due to open later this year in the CapitaGreen building in Singapore’s central business district. Membership costs around £300 a month plus a £1,500 joining fee.
The US$7.3m club has been designed by Nick Gray and Studio HBA, a division of hospitality design firm HBA. The theme of the six points of Gravity – wellness, vitality, lifestyle, structure, performance and equilibrium – is echoed in subtle design cues around the club, represented by the hexagon motifs including on the ceiling and floors.
Meanwhile, a strong part of the design brief was to maximise the space, and particularly the outdoor space. This is in keeping with the overall CapitaGreen building which, designed by Pritzker Laureate Toyo Ito, has been created to be like a plant growing towards the sky, with lush greenery enveloping the building.
Alongside the outdoor pool area and deck, with its view of the CBD skyline, the Gravity club therefore incorporates a yoga deck for sunrise yoga.
Gravity’s hexagon motif represents the brand’s six points of health focus
The great outdoors: The pool offers a panoramic view of Singapore CBD’s skyline, and there’s also a yoga deck for sunrise yoga classes
HOME FROM HOME Aspria Uhlenhorst, Hamburg, Germany It’s hard to choose one club from the Aspria portfolio on which to focus – all are market leaders in terms of concept, design and delivery – but on this occasion we’ve chosen Aspria Uhlenhorst, Hamburg.
Uhlenhorst is a redevelopment of the 100-year-old Klipper club, representing a €25m investment. Aspria used a local Hamburg-based architect for the basic building and a British interior design company, SparcStudio, for some of the fit-out work. The rest of the design and specification work was carried out internally by the Aspria team.
The club – encompassing hotel, gym, pool and spa – feels almost ‘aspirational home’ in design. Both floors have large windows looking out over the gardens, and the colour scheme is gentle – browns, creams, lots of wood. There’s a flow between gym and recreational, non-workout space: an open doorway links the first floor area of the gym with the restaurant, and there are leather sofas, standard lamps and even a pool table encroaching into the gym space. Huge, gilt-framed mirrors add glamour to the free weight and functional areas.
Membership costs €135 a month.
At Aspria Uhlenhorst in Hamburg, Germany, the club interiors mix sheer glamour with ‘aspirational home’ comfort
At Aspria Uhlenhorst in Hamburg, Germany, the club interiors mix sheer glamour with ‘aspirational home’ comfort
At Aspria Uhlenhorst in Hamburg, Germany, the club interiors mix sheer glamour with ‘aspirational home’ comfort
HIT THEM FOR SIX Pure Fitness, California Tower, Hong Kong Occupying 25,000sq ft over six floors, this new HK$30m (£2.5m) Pure Fitness club in the central business district of Hong Kong opened in April 2015.
Designed by Elaine Jamieson from Positive Partnership, its design is high-end in keeping with its location. The design vision is industrial urban chic with elements of cool sophistication – bare concrete and raw steel with a touch of glamour, and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.
The challenge of operating across so many floors was addressed with a new internal staircase, which has become a major design feature that’s integrated all elements of the gym. The relatively small area of each floor assists in giving the club a boutique feel.
Also incorporated is what’s said to be the world’s first 270-degree Les Mills Immersive Fitness studio. Membership costs HK$1,119 (£95) a month for Pure Fitness California Tower, or HK$1,499 (£125) for all Pure Fitness and Yoga locations in Asia – plus joining fee.
The club debuts a 270-degree Les Mills Immersive Fitness studio
The small floor areas on each level lend themselves to a boutique gym feel
MAKING A SPLASH Metropolitan Eurobuilding, Madrid, Spain This 4,000sq m club was designed by architect Esteban Becerril in line with other Metropolitan clubs, with a brief to create spaces where design and innovation play a crucial role, but without detracting from the need to make the member feel at home.
Unique design elements of the urban club include a 500sq m sandy beach terrace. There’s also a 500sq m spa – the wet areas of Metropolitan clubs are a key design focus – and 400sq m of changing room facilities alongside the 500sq m gym.
Membership costs from €70 a month.
making a splash
Members can relax on a
500sq m sandy beach terrace
The wet areas of Metropolitan clubs are a key design focus
NOMINATE YOUR CLUB
Think your club is worthy of inclusion in our series? Drop us an email with a few photos: [email protected]
The UK's four Chief Medical Officers have published a refreshed edition of Physical activity
guidelines: UK Chief Medical Officers' report, updating the evidence that underpins the nation's
physical activity recommendations and placing greater emphasis on strength, balance, reducing
sedentary behaviour and, for the first time, supporting people taking weight loss medications.
Places Leisure has exchanged contracts to build and operate a flagship £60m water and leisure
destination on behalf of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.
The Republic of Ireland will become the latest market in PureGym’s expanding international
portfolio, with the first launch planned for Dublin in 2027.
Anytime Fitness opened more than one club a day in 2025 and is on track to maintain this rate
of growth this year, as parent company Purpose Brands targets further international expansion.
The £33.9 million Leighton Leisure and Community Centre has opened in Leighton Buzzard, UK,
creating a next-generation public leisure, health and wellbeing hub for the local community.
Walnuts Leisure Centre in Orpington, in the London Borough of Bromley, has reopened following
a £17m transformation designed to secure the long-term future of the public leisure asset and
reposition it as a community wellbeing hub.
The Gym Group, has announced that it's sustained positive trading momentum has continued
through the first half of 2026 and the company remains confident about the outlook.
Luxury boutique Pilates and wellness studio, X-Club, officially launches a
4,000sq ft flagship at
Marylebone on 16 July Built around X-Club’s four pillars of wellness – mind,
movement,
nutrition and therapy – the facility features two group exercise studi
Active Blackpool is deploying Cornerstone Connect, a new digital interface allowing
disparate information from multiple systems to be aggregated into one dataset, to support
its focus on reducing health inequalities and improving healthy life expectancy. [more...]
Panatta brought together four of the most influential figures in bodybuilding history on the
stage of RiminiWellness 2026: Phil Heath, Lee Haney, Ronnie Coleman and Hany Rambod. [more...]
+ More featured suppliers
COMPANY PROFILES
PSLT Ltd PSLT Fitness Solutions manufacture, remanufacture and buy back commercial gym equipment. [more...]
