Established in 1968, Les Mills is a world-leading fitness and lifestyle brand based in New Zealand committed to improving health and wellbeing aspiring to make ‘humans fit for life’.
Les Mills New Zealand operates 12 nationwide facilities and offers wide-ranging group fitness classes and tailored personal training programs in concert with Les Mills International workout programs being licensed in 100 countries with over 130,000 certified instructors globally.
The Auckland City campus is the global hub for training, development, and innovation and occupies a large inner-city footprint boarded by arterial Wellesley and Victoria Streets in Auckland’s Central Business District. With redevelopment of the wider precinct staged over the next 5 years the need to enhance member experience, meet growing capacity requirements, and create a showcase for the future of group fitness was imperative.
The newly refurbished space sees a large industrial volume repurposed to accommodate three new offerings for members – functional training, boxing, and 100-bike immersive cycle studio: the world’s largest – as well as amenity and services upgrades and improved circulation to create a refined offering for the expanding membership and new spatial signature for the Les Mills brand. The insertion of a 350sqm cycle studio, clad in mirrored bronze-tinted stainless steel, creates a strong delineation of the space allowing the functional training and boxing areas to sit discreetly on either side and provides the requisite acoustic and services separation. The mirrored finish of the immersive studio dematerializes in its industrial surroundings adding a strong sense of continuity to the smaller open-plan training areas and creates a kinetic interplay between lighting and the movement of bodies.
Completion of functional, boxing, and cycle studios in March 2019 concludes the first phase of design with current works underway on façade, lobby, and upgrades to member facilities within the original heritage gym space on Victoria Street. Completion slated for mid-2021.
In collaboration with Monk Mackenzie Architects and Alt Group.
