10 Fitness & Wellness Spaces

 

1. Korean Football Park in Cheonan | UNS

 

In Cheonan, South Korea, Korean Football Park by UNS creates a new national home for the Korea Football Association. The 450,427 sq.m. campus brings together training, recovery, education, public engagement and institutional identity within a single landscape-led masterplan.

The project includes 11 football fields, an indoor climate-controlled arena, an outdoor stadium, gyms, physical therapy areas, healthcare facilities and athlete accommodation. Athletic performance is treated here as a wider ecosystem, where training, medical support, recovery and mental balance remain closely connected to landscape and public life.

 

 

2. Varkiza Resort: Redesign of Varkiza Beach | K-Division

ek Issue: 299 | July–August 2025

 

At Varkiza Beach, K-Division redesigns one of Attica’s most popular seaside complexes, bringing surviving elements of 1960s modernism into dialogue with a new vocabulary of curved forms, natural materials and shaded routes. The new interventions act as second skins for the existing typologies, giving the resort a unified and softer identity.

The new F&B area develops beneath a large pergola shaped by natural materials and organic lines, while bamboo elements form shading devices and enclosures. The project turns the beach experience into a sequence of movement, pause and encounter, where shade, light and landscape create a contemporary environment for summer comfort.

 

 

3.  Hidden Spa – Water Hope in Vietnam | IDEE Architects

 

In Cam Ranh, Vietnam, Hidden Spa – Water Hope by IDEE Architects is designed as a wellness space emerging from the landscape of coastal sand dunes. Rather than imposing itself on the natural setting, the architecture follows the terrain, creating a calm experience of therapy, water and shade.

At the heart of the composition, a central water courtyard works as both a spatial and environmental device. Reflecting water surfaces, planted islands and shaded walkways create gradual shifts in temperature, humidity and light. Water is therefore not treated as a decorative feature, but as infrastructure for cooling and sensory recovery.

 

 

4.  Minthis Spa in Paphos | Woods Bagot

ek Issue: 281 | October 2023

 

In Paphos, Minthis Spa by Woods Bagot is part of a wider hospitality and wellness landscape, where the experience of care gains architectural scale. The project is not limited to a series of treatment rooms; it organizes a relationship between water, light, movement and the calmness of the surrounding landscape.

As a resort spa, it works as a place of distance and restoration, where atmosphere is as important as programme. Materiality, views and the connection with the environment shape a wellness experience based less on the image of luxury and more on duration, physical relaxation and a sense of retreat.

 

 

5.  Hekate Fitness Club in Athens | Studio Maneo

 

In Metaxourgeio, Studio Maneo transforms a former warehouse into a 140 sq.m. exercise space with a calm, restrained atmosphere. Instead of the aggressive image of a conventional gym, the project is based on natural materials, diffused light and carefully controlled boundaries.

The architecture connects exercise with a sense of safety and decompression from the city. The gym therefore works not only as infrastructure for physical strength, but also as an everyday space for mental reset.

 

 

6. Sentō Urban Shop & Spa in Athens | PHOS Architects

ek Issue: 299 | July–August 2025

 

In Athens, Sentō Urban Shop & Spa by PHOS Architects combines beauty, care and wellness services with references to Japanese bathing culture. The project forms a sequence of reception, treatment and relaxation spaces, where materiality and light control degrees of visibility and privacy.

The spa experience is based on gentle transitions. Natural materials, fabric filters and carefully designed surfaces create an urban retreat, where care for the body is connected to silence, touch and a sense of distance from the rhythm of the city.

 

 

7.  + One More Gym | BIVA Design

 

In Muscat, Oman, + One More Gym by BIVA Design organizes a CrossFit center with a strong industrial identity and a complex wellness programme. Reception, café, two sports halls, locker rooms, steam bath, sauna, swimming pool and Jacuzzi come together in an environment that combines exercise, recovery and social experience.

Lighting plays a decisive role in the atmosphere. Reception areas convey a calmer mood, while the sports halls gain energy through directional lighting. The result is a gym that treats the intensity of training and the process of recovery as parts of the same experience.

 

 

8.  Pow Box Fitness Boxing Club in Athens | GJP Design & Construction

ek Issue: 258 | June 2021

 

In Athens, Pow Box Fitness Boxing Club by GJP Design & Construction occupies a neoclassical building, creating a strong contrast between the historic shell and a radically contemporary interior identity. Marble, metal mesh, neon, boxing gloves and theatrical lighting turn the gym into a scenographic environment for exercise.

The different floors organize reception, changing rooms, the boxing ring, a multi-purpose gym and a basement training area with a strong club-like atmosphere. The project shows how architecture can translate the energy of boxing into a complete spatial, visual and kinetic experience.

 

 

9. Molon Labe Gym | ADP Architecture Design Practice

 

In Engomi, Cyprus, Molon Labe Gym by ADP Architecture Design Practice transforms an abandoned industrial building from the 1960s into a contemporary fitness space. The programme includes free-weight areas, equipment zones, an MMA cage, martial arts areas, changing rooms and support functions, while the intervention maintains references to the industrial memory of the shell.

The new façade redefines the gym’s relationship with the street, combining the impression of a solid corten volume with a curtain wall that opens visibility toward the main exercise space. Inside, exposed services, the new metal roof and targeted lighting highlight bodily intensity and use as central elements of the architecture.

 

 

10.  ‘Therapia’ Physiotherapy Center | Mnk Design Studio

 

At ‘Therapia’ Physiotherapy Center, Mnk Design Studio unifies three independent professional spaces into a 100 sq.m. physiotherapy center with treatment rooms, a specialized rehabilitation gym and a private therapist’s office. The architecture balances the technical precision of a healthcare space with the need for calmness, comfort and trust.

Accessibility, microclimate control, natural light and ventilation are central to the design. At the same time, the white palette, subtle color accents and low-emission materials create an environment where therapy and recovery acquire a clear spatial identity.