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Parisian studio RDAI has designed a store on Tokyo’s prestigious Omotesando Avenue for fashion house Hermès, which was designed to evoke aspects of Japanese nature and culture. More
A sinuous wooden walkway connects different amenities in this private leisure club that architecture and design firm Rockwell Group has created for residents of New York’s Waterline Square development.The Waterline Club by Rockwell Group links together the trio of skyscrapers that make up Waterline Square, a five-acre residential development located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side between West 59th and 61st streets.
Each of the three buildings was designed by a different architect – Rafael Viñoly, Richard Meier and KPF – and together accommodates 263 luxury apartments.
An elevated wooden walkway crosses over Nexus, the club’s central gathering spot
Residents now have exclusive access to 77,000 square feet (7,153 square metres) of leisure amenities available in The Waterline Club, which occupies three subterranean levels beneath the development.
When devising the interiors, Rockwell Group made sure to make room for activities that “appeal to both left and right-brain thinking”.
Residents can use The Waterline Club’s fitness centre
“Our research led to a major observation: New Yorkers have diverse, dynamic interests,” the firm explained.
“Rather than offer only the typical athletic facilities, we wanted to appeal to New Yorkers’ balanced approach to life, which includes art, music, community, and play,” it continued.
“We grouped active amenities together, and social and cultural amenities together, establishing a micro-community and an oasis within the city.”
The club also includes a basketball court
The central hub of the club is a vast travertine-lined room, dubbed Nexus, which is located down on the third, lowest level. Dotted with an array of plush leather sofas and sculptural armchairs, the room has sightlines through to activity rooms at this level like the gym and tennis court.
David Rockwell and Joyce Wang team up for first Equinox Hotel in New York
At this level there’s also a 30-foot-tall (nine-metre-tall) rock climbing wall, a half-pipe skate park, a golf simulation room, a music recording studio and an indoor greenhouse where residents can do gardening.
Musical residents can make use of the club’s recording studio
Winding up and across the Nexus is a sinuous wooden bridge that connects visitors to amenities on the club’s upper floors.
Rockwell Group, which describes the structure as a “circulation ribbon”, took cues from other notable pedestrian paths in New York such as the spiralling walkway inside the Guggenheim Museum and the looping running track that goes around Central Park’s reservoir.
“The bridge inspires guests to seek out new adventures,” added the firm. “It dips down in the centre, which gives the illusion of tension or stretching and also evokes speed and movement.”
There’s additionally a series of playrooms for residents’ children
Among the selection of amenities on the club’s second floor are children’s playrooms, a games arcade, a pets area and a variety of fitness spaces including a basketball court, kickboxing studio and mini athletics field which is fit-out with astroturf.
This is followed by a sauna, spa treatment rooms and two swimming pools – one of which is Olympic-sized – up on the club’s first floor.
One of the two swimming pools which can be found on the club’s first floor
The Waterline Club is a short distance from the high-end hotel that Rockwell Group and Joyce Wang Studio designed for fitness brand Equinox.
Opened to the public at the end of the last year, the hotel includes 212 guest rooms, a state-of-the-art gym and a rooftop pool that directly overlooks Thomas Heatherwick’s Vessel project.
Photography is by Evan Joseph, excluding top image by Scott Frances.
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Thai architecture studio Enter Projects Asia has used rattan to enclose a series of studios for yoga brand Vikasa at its headquarters in Bangkok.Enter Projects Asia used rattan – a type of climbing plant with a flexible woody stem – as the main material to break up a 450-square-metre space in a triangular-shaped block in downtown Bangkok into a series of yoga studios.
The studio is shortlisted for leisure and wellness interior of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020.
Rattan was used to enclose private yoga studios
Supported on a frame of Thai timber, the material was used to partition two public yoga studios and fully enclose two smaller, private studios.
The architecture studio wrapped the spaces in the natural material to create “an urban oasis in the chaos of Bangkok – a retreat from the grind”.
Rattan was chosen as it can be found on the island of Koh Samui of the east coast of the country, where yoga brand Vikasa had a retreat.
“All elements of the project were made from natural, local materials to be a hub or a portal for their existing location, which is based on a hillside in Koh Samui: Thai hardwood, local black slate, bamboo and most notably, rattan,” said Enter Projects Asia design director Patrick Keane.
“The result is a space of captivating calmness, cloaked in quiet contentment – an oasis of tranquillity amongst the chaos of Bangkok,” he told Dezeen.
The studio’s reception has a rattan desk and light feature
Along with the pods, rattan was used to create light fittings in the studios and a large, sinuous desk that dominates the reception area.
The desk becomes a bench for those waiting for classes and turns into a light feature that winds its way above the reception area, ending in a woven lampshade above the main staircase.
The rattan light feature hangs above the stairs
The three-dimensional rattan forms were created in collaboration with specialist furniture designer Project Rattan by combining traditional weaving techniques with digital design.
CO-LAB Design Office creates bamboo yoga pavilion in Tulum
“We facilitated the fusion of 3D technologies with local Thai craftsmanship to bring nature to an urban context,” explained Keane.
“We worked using 3D software, special effects modelling namely Maya and Rhino. Frames and templates were all printed on giant templates for the craftspeople to use as guides for their weaving techniques.”
The rattan desk turns into a bench
Overall, Enter Projects Asia hopes that it has created a space that communicates a sense of spirituality
“It embraces all five senses, with soft geometry to counter hard urban edges, tactile materials that are touchable and natural, the smell of nature, and the technical acoustics – as good as a radio station – and the food and beverage Vikasa provides,” said Keane.
Rattan forms are visible from outside the building
The studios occupy the first floor of Vikasa’s headquarters, which has a cafe area on the ground floor, with the rattan forms designed to be visible through large glass windows from the street.
Previous yoga studios on Dezeen include a bamboo pavilion nestled in the jungle in Tulum designed by CO-Lab Design Office and a muted studio with a textured sisal ceiling in Melbourne.
Photography by Edmund Sumner.
Project credits:
Interiors architecture and design: Enter Projects AsiaDesign director: Patrick KeaneDesign team: Tomas Guevara, Azul Paklaian, Archana Ramesh, Sergio LissoneLocal craftsmanship: Project RattanBuilders: Enter Projects, Ian SykesEngineer: Lincoln ScottConsultants: Ian Sykes BuilderCollaborators: Project Rattan
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US firm Koning Eizenberg Architecture left worn-looking ornate walls, brickwork and columns inside this museum for children in Pittsburgh, which occupies a historic library that was struck by lightning. Koning Eizenberg Architecture (KEA) designed the transformation of the damaged library into MuseumLab for the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. It forms an extension of its campus […] More
Creative consultancy Culdesac has designed a store for supermarket chain Consum in Benicàssim, Spain, with simple, stripped-back interiors to make the shop’s arrangement understandable. Valencia-based Culdesac designed the arrangement, signage and furniture of the store, which will serve as a model for Consum’s future shops, to be clearer and easier to understand than traditional supermarkets. “Stores should be designed […] More
