Z&B Fitness, ITC one | Riccardo Rubelli

Z&B fitness is a boutique fitness studio based in Shanghai, offering the best and most up todate group and private classes.
We were commissioned to design the new 900 sqm studio at the second floor of ITC one, a prime level shopping mall in Shanghai downtown.

The client required us to create a center included gym, 3 rooms for different kind of fitness classes as well as reception area, waiting areas and changing rooms.

Planimetrically, the project consists of a long L-shaped corridor that starts from the reception directly open into the shopping mall hall and finish to the gym, distributing changing rooms, classrooms and accessory rooms. All classrooms, including the gym, are connected to a continuous terrace along the entire perimeter that can be used for outdoor events and enjoy perfect natural lighting.

Conceptually, the welcoming and professional spirit of Z&B Fitness is expressed through the use of materials as ribbed wood, aluminum, microcement and stone that cover and identify different volumes of the project that overlook the distribution corridor, characterized by a sculptural neon tubes ceiling that is reflected and amplified in the central volume covered with aluminum panels and mirrors.

The three classes called “Energy room”, “Fusion room” and “Flow room” are differentiated through the use of materials, colors and lighting.

The wooden volume that identifies the changing rooms, with also a storage function and a bench for waiting, ends directly in the "Energy room" becoming a display for all the necessary equipment.

The “Energy room” as well as the “Fusion room” are large spaces partly glazed and partly covered with mirrors, acoustically insulated through the use of sound-absorbing panels in natural fiber painted dark gray and they are usually used for group classes on the theme of dance, combat, boxing or with equipment, that motivates the presence on the ceiling of different types of disco lights alternating with the metal bars necessary to hang the TRX and Punching Bags.

The “Flow room” mainly used for yoga, aeroyoga and ballet classes, is characterized by a warm and relaxed atmosphere through the use of softly colored materials such as microcement, sound-absorbing panels in natural fiber and oak wood flooring. A ballet bar, also made of oak wood, surrounds the entire room, facing the mirrors and the floor-to-ceiling window. The lighting consists of linear lamps recessed into the ceiling, parallel to the metal bars necessary to hang the hammock for the yoga plane

The largest space of the center is intended for the gym, divided into a cardio area with a wooden floor and a weight area with anti-trauma rubber flooring, the black painted ceiling has been left open with exposed pipes, only slightly shielded by linear lights perpendicular to the facade and corresponding to window frames.

Great attention has been paid to the study of the changing rooms, whose shower volume, covered in tiles similar to natural stone, divides men from women.
Natural light filters through the windows, partially screened by oval mirrors and the wooden ribbed cabinet in the dryers area.