When designing any fitness facility, functional occupancy and space optimization are key. A truly effective gym design must balance the use of space, and how the space functions for the end user. A win-win occurs when both operator and the end user achieve success from the space.
To understand how this can be accomplished, let’s look at what functional occupancy is and how to approach it.
What is functional occupancy?
The simple answer is functional occupancy is the number of people that can comfortably and safely perform an effective and results-driven workout simultaneously at any given time within a fitness facility. For example, space considerations need to be made for different exercises like box jumps, burpees, squats, and lunges to be performed. Further, good functional designers also understand that the workout experience is paramount. And there are a variety of nuances involved when it comes to ensuring this.
Every fitness facility comes with opportunities and challenges when it comes to spatial planning, and it’s important to have an experienced designer on the team who understands how to overcome the challenges and enhance the opportunities for the very best outcomes.
What are the benefits?
The more people an operator can accommodate for simultaneous use – and accommodate well – the better the ROI will be. Other benefits can be measured by increased engagement, the building of community, and/or increased user satisfaction. In today’s climate with the focus on health, wellness and fitness soaring, there is more opportunity than ever before. This holds for not only gyms and studios, but also hotel gyms, corporate gyms, multifamily gym facilities and campus recreation centers.
Not only will operators benefit by bringing in more revenue, but guests and members also thrive on the energy of others in a bustling gym as well. Entering a quiet and empty workout space is certainly not an ideal environment to get a motivating workout in. Users seek a dynamic, exciting experience and that involves the energy and camaraderie of others.
A well-designed functional space also eliminates the possibility of users encountering interruptions during workouts. Functional designers think about clearance around equipment, smart storage that eliminates the risk of injury, placement of high energy and lower energy zones, the placement of doors and passageways, the foot traffic and patterns of users and more.
These are all things the end user should never have to think about during their workouts – if the space is designed well.
How should an operator approach functional occupancy?
Functional occupancy should be tackled by involving an experienced functional designer from the very beginning of the design process. Waiting until the space is fixed could mean a lot of missed opportunities.
It’s imperative for the designer to fully understand the operator’s brand and vision for the use of the space. Is the facility focused on a single type of experience, like delivering a hard-hitting quick circuit workout, or do they offer a little bit of everything with multiple modalities and zones? Is the brand high-energy or spa-like? What exactly does the operator want the workouts to feel like and look like in that space? Depending on the answers to these questions, the same space can look vastly different in the end.
When the user experience is fully understood, the functional designer and architect work together to design the space. Architects look at occupancy as it relates to code and code only. A functional designer may come in and identify that moving a doorway over two feet will greatly enhance the flow, or that by adding one foot of space, additional equipment or users can be added. The functional designer can then work with the architect to ensure this happens.
Creating spaces that are energizing, approachable, well-planned, safe, and facilitate as many people as possible without sacrificing experience can be achieved by working with a Functional Designer.