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GHP 092: Designing athletic health clubs
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Welcome back to the Green Healthy Places podcast, where we explore how to create buildings and interiors that actively support health and wellbeing, while respecting the planet too.
Today I’m joined by Krista Rochat-Boeser. Krista is a specialist health club designer with deep experience in the US premium fitness market, including around 14 years at LifeTime where she held senior design leadership responsibilities across multiple flagship and luxury club projects.
Krista is now based in Bali and is supporting me directly on a number of Biofit gym design projects, so this conversation is very much an expert-to-expert discussion.
We go beyond aesthetics and equipment lists to focus on what actually makes a health club work: the strategic intentions of each particular space—whether that’s enhancing performance, community, or revenue—and how design decisions, along with service and operations, shape a member’s sense of safety, comfort, and belonging.
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Transcript
Introduction to Health-Oriented Design
00:00:08
Green Healthy Places
Welcome to episode 92 of the Green Healthy Places podcast, where we explore how to create buildings and interiors that actively support health and well-being, while also, where possible, respecting the planet.
Krista Experience in Fitness Design
00:00:22
Green Healthy Places
Today, I'm joined by kristaa Rochat-Boeser Krista is a health club designer with experience in the US premium fitness market, including 14 years at Lifetime Fitness, where she became an expert in building out what they call athletic health clubs, She was a senior design leader there responsible for the multiple flagships and luxury club projects. She's now based in Bali. She's also been supporting me on some of our BioFit gym and spa design projects.
00:00:48
Green Healthy Places
So today we're going to go a little bit beyond just the usual in terms of aesthetics and equipment lists. We're trying to really focus on what makes a health club work. How does it function and how does design play into that? So even down to thinking about like the strategic intentions of individual spaces and sub zones within the overall concept of a health club. So we've been working on or planning this
Designing Lifestyle Destinations
00:01:11
Green Healthy Places
one for a while. Krista, welcome. Thank you for for joining us.
00:01:16
krista
Thank you so much, Matt. It's pleasure to be here.
00:01:19
Green Healthy Places
Let's dive in When you think about your North Star for really great clubs, what helps differentiate a really successful athletic health club from, say, your average gym. After all these years working in the industry, did you you find your ideas coming together around certain strategic components that create this concept
00:01:42
krista
You know, obviously from a design perspective, the fit and finish and the care and the craft of the space is, is very important. And as a designer, we, look there first perhaps.
00:01:55
krista
But I think something that has been on my mind quite a bit lately is this idea more than just a routine, right? When you can start to tap into a lifestyle destination, when you can become part of someone's daily habits, um, and some place maybe they have as like a second home when you can design a space that sort of encapsulates the user and what they need or want in their life. I think then you start to really hit on what is a premier destination.
Revenue and User Experience in Design
00:02:32
krista
And something that was lovely about what Lifetime provided was the spaces were expansive and they captured every aspect of life that you could imagine. You could go to the spa, you can do a workout, you can dine, you can have a business meeting, right? So there was all of these facets to the facility. And I really think that these days there's this push towards the social wellness clubs and I think that's just really sort of top of mind is how do we create these community spaces, um especially in the age of technology and digital enhancements and things of that nature? Like, how can you create a place that is almost a home outside of home for its users? And I think that really starts to signify a great
00:03:22
krista
health club, honestly. And it's funny to think of it that way, because for so many years, it was just, you know, can I go and do my workout? Check. Can I lift the weights, do the cardio, and then be on my way?
00:03:34
krista
But now we're talking about, you know, how can we measure a user's time, how much time do they spend in a space? And then sometimes time equals additional dollars for the owner, right? So it's kind of interesting when you get someone to come into your space and stay, will they brought buy a coffee, a smoothie, have a meeting there, right? Will they grab lunch? So it's just an interesting aspect of like time and luxury and how be how you can become part of a lifestyle, if that makes sense.
00:04:06
Green Healthy Places
It does. And I think one thing I've i've noticed already just in the time we've spent collaborating together is your ability to balance both the hardware and the software, the tangible and the intangible.
00:04:19
Green Healthy Places
And I think that that really it shines through the fact that you've been in-house for so long because effectively, you know a club ends up having to deliver a combination of of enhancing user performance, so like enhancing the guest experience and making them making your members feel and and literally physically perform at their best, we hope, whilst also creating a sense of community and balancing that with driving business revenue. And so you've got a number of levers, right? The program mix, the the adjacencies, the type of atmospheres you're trying to create.
00:04:58
Green Healthy Places
When you're playing with those three components around you know and enhancing the user experience, thinking about generating a social community aspect, and then also the business revenue, but when you've been on the design side for so long,
00:05:16
Green Healthy Places
how do you How do you play with those? like What are the techniques you found that that can help you sort of integrate all three?
00:05:22
krista
Mm-hmm.
00:05:23
Green Healthy Places
Or in the end, do you end up having to make compromises and perhaps it's two out of three or in some cases, even one out of three? And um where do you sit? How does that play out on ah on a day to day when you're in-house? Obviously, it's slightly different when you're consulting because we a shorter term role.
00:05:37
Green Healthy Places
But having the in-house experience is, I think, a really interesting perspective.
Principles Over Trends in Fitness Design
00:05:42
krista
Yeah, I think ultimately it it comes down to the mission of the business and what are the core principles and the pillars of what that business is trying to achieve. So for example, lifetime was a healthy way of life, you know, family destination. It was not just a singular user or a couple, but it also wanted to encapsulate the family aspect too. And again, space was readily available for the most part for many of those places. Um,
00:06:10
krista
And so they were able to sort of add the components to everyone in the family and sort of all of those aspects of life. But I think, you know, when space is not so,
00:06:23
krista
ah ah readily available, really just refocusing on what are the pillars of the business and then how can you strategically add, you know, complimentary services to that or contrasting services. So if you are, Hey, I'm a performance based athlete gym,
00:06:43
krista
you know, you're going to have that as your bread and butter and and do that really well, right? Like, don't start to do all of the things because they're cute or they're trendy or they make money, right? Like refocus on the business and the principles, keep that as your core, do it really well. And then I think when you start to add in those extra components of complimentary sort of services, right? Like you have performance based and then maybe a really lovely wellness recovery aspect too. And then you just take those and they fill your mission and you just do them really well. I think that's important is to stay focused and not, ah you know, glom onto all of the trends in the space.
00:07:24
Green Healthy Places
Yeah, i think there's a clear marked difference between creating highly differentiated specific fitness studio concepts and slightly more catch-all health club vibes where you do need to tap into different demographic groups, both the real passionate train people who train on a regular basis and those who
00:07:35
krista
Thank you.
00:07:46
Green Healthy Places
perhaps lacking motivation or don't feel comfortable, but want to get on the ladder and want to get on that journey. So that last group, I find when you see data come out around, you know, typically 10 to 15% of the population in any country are active users of a gym, right? So what is everyone else doing?
00:08:05
Green Healthy Places
So those initial steps, like if there is a social mission that we we can play here or a contribution to society beyond the people who are already exercising, it's getting those other people into the door and keeping them there.
00:08:07
krista
Thank you.
00:08:18
Green Healthy Places
And so making them feel safe and comfortable. So what lessons have you learned around that idea of perhaps, you know, or whether it's ladies or older members or people who just generally feel intimidated by the type of atmosphere that they might imagine in a gym or health club. The reality could be very different, but nonetheless, there is that mental barrier. So what have you learned along along your your path ah that could yeah make that an easier transition and get people on the journey?
00:08:50
krista
Sure, you know, honestly, it's kind of a personal story, but also something I learned throughout my time at Lifetime. I was one of those people. I became a member at Lifetime before I was an employee, and their spaces are vast, and they are intimidating, and they are massive, right, buildings. And so something that rang true to me. ah And as I reflect on spaces that I use now is sort of through design, if possible, and space permits, I think it's important to allow a member a user to ground into the space, right? There's so many businesses and and they have their own mission. But there's so many businesses where you walk in to the club into the gym, and you are right face to face with a room full of equipment and that can feel like a bit much and that's a bit hard to digest so i think it's really interesting in the design process to to allow for a path of progression right like you can ground in you can be greeted at the concierge with a hello you can take a deep breath and then you can meander a little bit on your way um and continue to find places to sort of like reset right like
00:10:06
krista
You'll go to the front desk, perhaps then you'll go to the locker room, drop your things off, perhaps you'll head to the fitness floor. you know I think it's important to have a layered approach, um not only from just this like comfort and safety sort of perspective, but also just, I think it adds to that elevated experience in that athletic or luxury dynamic when you can you know sort of make your way to the space um a little bit more slowly.
00:10:36
krista
And then i think once you arrive, it's really important to offer options.
00:10:38
Green Healthy Places
Thank
00:10:43
krista
I think, you know, I wouldn't necessarily personally head to to the free weight floor to grab my dumbbells. Right. And so then if there's an option for someone who is a bit more intimidated or less likely to stay in the space, right? Like give them somewhere else where they can create a space and carve out something that's comfortable for them and their experience level.
00:11:06
krista
I think a lot of people are scared to come into a gym space because they don't know what to do and they don't know how to use the equipment. They don't know how to lift properly. And so giving people options to make their own area, whether it's in the stretching floor or a fitness studio, you know, something else for someone to sort of create their own.
00:11:31
krista
I think that's important.
00:11:34
Green Healthy Places
So when you're you're thinking through perhaps almost different guest journeys through the space, I wonder, there's a lot we can do in that sense around the theory. ah Having worked in-house for so many years, did you find that actually guests tend to do their own thing and they're not following the the imaginary guest journey maps that you create and clients just end up you know having their own vision of how to use the space?
00:11:57
Green Healthy Places
Or is it something that you can map in advance and then integrate into designs then almost sort of subtly control that flow so that people are more or less following the initial intention?
00:12:07
krista
m
00:12:08
Green Healthy Places
Or does it end up just being um know everybody essentially making their own route through the through the gym? and But that might even change over over time, I guess, as people are doing different
Challenges in Health Club Design
00:12:18
Green Healthy Places
things and changing their own routines, right?
00:12:18
krista
yeah
00:12:22
krista
Yeah, I think absolutely. And it's what what does the user want on that particular day? So I think it's interesting to like, you know, enter the fitness floor and then maybe have a breakaway studio or something so that you you're funneled into the floor, but then you can go into different areas of the club. um Yeah, it's it's kind of like if you're just there to get your workout in, what does that path look like? You're just you're not even stopping at the locker room. Maybe you're not dropping your things off. You know, maybe you're just going straight for the treadmill and then lifting some weights and then you're right back out the door. no cafe, no spa, no nothing. So I do think it's very much user dependent. But how can you layer those experiences sort of on the side of their path of progression um so that they have the visibility to the availability of the service? Right. So I think it's just like allowing those touch points without imposing upon them. And if one day they're just, you know, down to brass tacks, they just need to get their workout in, they have 20 minutes before their next meeting, so be it. But if there's a day where they're more leisurely exploring, you know, they can find their way into those places easily.
00:13:26
Green Healthy Places
I've noticed, obviously, this has been happening most intensely over the last 10 years, but really it's been happening for 15 to 20. But, you know, this integration of of the yin and the yang under one roof.
00:13:39
Green Healthy Places
So the idea that, yes, you are here to sweat, but you're also here to relax, to de-stress that let's call it the wellness component, which is now, you know, right up there.
00:13:45
krista
Mm-hmm.
00:13:49
Green Healthy Places
I mean, whether it's fifty fifty but you know, it is it is a huge component, a huge part of the of the health and fitness puzzle now. So from our perspective as as designers, we're then working with this slight tension between high intensity and low intensity between loud spaces that, you know, it's whether it's the clunking of weights on the floor, people grunting and whatever they're doing.
00:14:12
Green Healthy Places
Crazy stuff happens in the gyms as people get excited and the energy is high. And then you've you've got to have these low, quiet spaces too, right, where people can really
00:14:17
krista
Mm-hmm.
00:14:22
Green Healthy Places
reconnect with themselves and just go and do perhaps some of the inner work, whether that's yoga or stretching, meditation, whatever it might be. So when you think also about those two pieces, both acoustically and visually, like how are you balancing those now? do you try and keep them completely separate?
00:14:38
Green Healthy Places
Can recovery be part of the main gym or does it need its own space? How do you see that?
00:14:43
krista
ah this is like the crux of the design of lifetime. And I think many spaces, right? Like that was what was the experience on a daily basis. um You know, engaging acoustical engineers, you know, spending all of the money, soundproofing walls, sound clips, all of the, you know, all of the things you could do panels. If you still are going to have some sort of transference of sound and experience from one space to another. And I think it's just, Ultimately, you have to sort of accept that, unfortunately, unless you can like completely segregate the spaces.
00:15:19
krista
um But there there often is a bleed of those things. And so honestly, it comes down to the importance of your staffing, I think, ultimately. And how do you deliver that message? You know, there's so many people who expect yoga to be silent.
00:15:32
krista
But something about yoga that's interesting is that you can find your breath through the chaos of life, right? And so it's kind of like, how can you shift perspectives a little bit when you know that you're going to have those adjacencies? um But obviously engaging you know structural engineers, doing sound testing, doing the things. We used to have weights dropping on um the spa rooms. And it was like, you know then we put in an isolation slab and and a ton of concrete and all of these things. But ultimately, like the transference still happens. um
00:16:08
krista
As as a a personal note, there was a a project I worked on in New York City, and we did all of the things in that lifetime gym to protect from the sound.
00:16:19
krista
But ultimately, the transference of the sound went through the building's columns and then up into other tenants' floors. And it was like, you know, like kind of mind boggling how these things leak in between spaces. And at the end of the day, it's really hard to plan for that. um But I do think it's important to, you know, of course you can't always please everyone, but can you please the majority of your members?
00:16:47
krista
Will you have customer feedback? You know, it was loud in the spa or my yoga class was disruptive. Of course
Operational Logistics and Standards
00:16:53
krista
you will. And then I think it comes down to like the staffing, right? And how are they handling that message?
00:16:59
krista
with grace and care.
00:17:01
Green Healthy Places
There's so much to unpack there from from know whether a sauna should be a silent space or can a sauna actually be somewhere with some background music and where you can go and chat.
00:17:04
krista
Yeah.
00:17:09
krista
Oh yeah.
00:17:11
Green Healthy Places
they're That's a cultural thing.
00:17:13
krista
Yeah.
00:17:13
Green Healthy Places
People have different views like with your yoga. does it Should it be entirely silent and completely isolated? Or is it just the reality of of doing yoga in ah in ah in a health club environment?
00:17:24
Green Healthy Places
And then, yeah, you mentioned residential projects. Yeah, I mean, for anyone who's not involved in this, but it's it's impact noise is is our enemy number one.
00:17:34
Green Healthy Places
So anything that's dropped on a floor ah in a residential building, especially if it's not a ground floor or low lower ground, if you're on a first floor gym, for example, I've done one of those.
00:17:35
krista
Yeah.
00:17:36
krista
Yeah.
00:17:45
Green Healthy Places
yeah You just have a massive battle with the acoustic consultants because quite rightly they're worried about someone flipping a barbell over their head and and dropping it one day and that noise just goes straight out through the concrete slab and up into the rest of the building.
00:17:58
Green Healthy Places
You don't see much of this when you're working in ah when you're working out. When you are working to design these spaces, these are these are our daily headaches. I wondered also about the operational perspective as well.
00:18:08
krista
Yeah.
00:18:09
Green Healthy Places
Like if there's any like bugbears, little things that you you always look out for. like I send you a floor plan, you're like, right, I'm going to zero in because I've already forgotten cleaning flows or like towel logistics.
00:18:17
krista
Hmm.
00:18:20
Green Healthy Places
Like the other things that operationally, sightlines, for example, I noticed you're really hot on sightlines thinking through these small operational and layout
00:18:28
krista
Hmm.
00:18:30
Green Healthy Places
ah components that that you've gathered and and sort of have become part of your toolkit over the years. Maybe you could just talk to the operational design piece for a second.
00:18:41
krista
Sure. I have a unique perspective because I not only was I a member and just a user of the facilities of lifetime, but then I actually was on the operational side for a number of years as well. So I worked within the facility for three years in the management roles. And so I received a lot of the feedback, you know, from on that last note on the zoning and all those things. But then I then i also then was the procurement manager to fill the clubs with all of of the things that are needed to open the space. And so it's this really interesting dynamic of all of the perspectives of sort of the business of fitness clubs, the front of house, the back of house, ah you know, designing the house and
00:19:26
krista
you know, just ah again, a funny personal note um from the procurement side of things, we would buy all of the machines, for instance, to clean the facility, right? ah Floor cleaners, scrubbers, vacuums.
00:19:38
krista
And then we would arrive at these new facilities and there was not necessarily any place to store them, right? And so like the team members, they need to be able to use the space in order to clean the space, in order to keep the asset as beautiful and pristine as possible. But when you don't allow for them to have the space to do their jobs.
00:19:55
Green Healthy Places
Thank
00:19:59
krista
It's really hard for them to do their jobs. And then that plays into like, hey, why is my asset depreciating? why are things broken? Why are things dirty, right? And so it's really, it's fundamental to allow those spaces for storage.
00:20:13
krista
What does their business need to operate? And where can they put those things so that they can do so? um I think it's also really interesting you know, from an operational and cleaning perspective, sometimes, you know, from a luxury lens, maybe you want to hide some of the cleaning. But I think some cleaning in terms of like a locker room attendant or concierge or something like that's important to earn trust with your member base so that they know that you're actively sort of moving through the space, putting things away, fine tuning the towels, right, straightening the soap bottles. Like that's an important aspect to plan for. So having like that space where they can go to fill and stock, but then also allowing them to be sort of forefront and part of the the music of the space, um I think is important.
00:21:07
krista
Does that make sense?
00:21:08
Green Healthy Places
Yeah, it's a an interesting way of putting it, the idea of that balance between public and private cleaning. And actually, as you say, you want some to be visible because, yeah, this is we're here, we're supporting, we're taking the water off the floor, we're wiping the basins after someone just decided to shave and not clean up.
00:21:28
Green Healthy Places
All these little things that are happening you know all day, constantly in the bathrooms, especially.
00:21:32
krista
Yeah.
00:21:33
Green Healthy Places
um you know Some kind of a hygienic spray on the handles of the machines. I love to see them working on that. I say, great, and at least I know that's happening. It reinforces my sense that um you know my membership fees are going into some, um being well spent in terms of the operational side.
Emerging Trends and Future Plans
00:21:50
Green Healthy Places
If we project forwards into the future a little bit, yeah we're often tasked with creating new venues, new facilities, and therefore part of that role is is being able to gaze into our crystal balls and and help an entrepreneur or or a developer or a hotel operator to anticipate what's coming two to three years down the line.
00:22:13
Green Healthy Places
So inevitably now, the the hot topic is is around recovery, longevity and and some kind of medical integration. Where do you stand on that? do you see that playing out for a good few years to come? you think it's running hot and and it could equally run cold? Or do you think this is now the new normal for for health clubs?
00:22:32
krista
o I was struck a balance somewhere in between those things. um You know, again, working for on on the inside of a company for so long and seeing the amount of turnover that we had to do within the facilities over the course of their lifetime, right? As soon as a trend came up, we would go and and and change out the space. We added medical spaces, doctor spaces, examination tables. We added blood draw and consultation rooms and, you know, like all of the things sort of made their way into the club and so in in some way or another. Sometimes it blew up.
00:23:08
krista
the plan and sometimes you can sort of fit it in the corner. Um, but I, I do think there's a bit of trendiness to it, right? There's ah a lot of like anti-aging, all of those things are very hot right now, but I, I do see a sense of it continuing in some form. And I think it's important to plan for that in some way, if available. Um,
00:23:35
krista
I think there's always sort of this need to to pair your very like public, right, fitness floors or group fitness studios or what what have you, like sort of your core fundamental things that don't change with some sort of a privacy aspect.
00:23:51
krista
And how can you you know make it fluid enough that you can adjust it as trends come and go? um you know Whether that's just like you know some offices that people could use as offices in the interim or if the the business sort of dies, right? Like if you needed like personal consultation or injectable rooms or something of that nature, right? Like, how can you use that in the future is really important to plan. But I think some shared, you know, public space versus a small percentage of sort of private spaces that can be turned over for these ideas, because there always seems to be sort of like this shifting
00:24:29
krista
private aspect, whether that be medical or performance-based, you know, blood draws and running on a treadmill with the mask and the whole deal, you know, or now we're into this anti-aging and hormonal replacement therapy and all of those things, right? And so having that space available, I think is nice. But again, if it compromises sort of those pillars of the business and what is fundamental to to the revenue stream, and if it makes that questionable, and then I think you leave it out, right?
00:24:58
krista
I think there's so many people who follow the trends so hard. And if there's one thing that was a bit annoying, but really lovely also was at Lifetime, the c see the CEO really had a distinct position that things be timeless.
00:25:16
krista
And that came down to the planning as much as possible, the material selections, the layout, the flow, right? Like how timeless can you make it even though there's all these cool ideas in the industry, whether it be boutique spaces or whatever, know, what have you, but um to be as timeless as possible in the design, even if that means compromising on some of the cool factor, it's hard for a designer sometimes, right? Like you're like, ah, want it to be cool, but cool doesn't always last the life cycle of the project.
00:25:51
Green Healthy Places
Yeah, so then planning for adaptability and and flexibility in the future is a way to, yeah, do at least some of the future proofing, right? My sense is the peptides and and injectables and things, yeah, that wave is has got a a few years to play out first.
00:26:01
krista
Yeah.
00:26:07
Green Healthy Places
and remember also the US is so far advanced Everyone's already on the peptide wave in the US and it hasn't really hit in Europe yet. And so, you know, it's just trickling through. And so those sort private consultation spaces that were previously just an open plan desk, you're now suddenly like, that's not going to work. We need some bit more privacy, like some kind of a a shade or sort of yeah a break just to give that client, that member,
00:26:32
Green Healthy Places
a sense of being in at at least a semi-private space. So yeah, it's as often happens, the US leads the way and and the rest of the world is is following on its coattails. So you're' you've been ahead for a long while.
00:26:44
Green Healthy Places
Krista, thanks so for your time. It was cool. It was a really fun chatting. If people want to reach out or see your work or follow along, where were you active online?
00:26:49
krista
Yeah.
00:26:54
krista
I am actually currently rebuilding a website inspired by our work together and really looking at um showcasing you know our abilities together as well as my own individually.
00:27:06
krista
So I will be in touch with that soon.
00:27:09
Green Healthy Places
Very good. Cool.
00:27:10
Green Healthy Places
Nice. listen Thanks again.
00:27:11
krista
Yeah.
00:27:12
Green Healthy Places
was really fun.
00:27:12
krista
Yeah.
00:27:14
krista
Yeah. Thank you, Matt. I really appreciate it.