Fitness Empire Leans into Design to Push Bar Higher

Fitness now has an aesthetic—and operators who understand it are building empires. Rows of treadmills, mirrors and a sweaty space to chuck some tin around aren’t enough to keep memberships renewing any longer. Mood, material and mindset now matter as much as muscle gain and fat loss. “We’ve always wanted to change the gym environment,” One Playground co-founder Justin Ashley says. ▲ One Playground North Sydney spans four levels above the Victoria Cross Metro station in Lendlease’s 42-storey Victoria Cross Tower. Alongside co-founder Serra Burmin, Ashley, who is also chief executive, has built a business shaped as much by design as by discipline. The pair’s focus on experience and atmosphere has shifted One Playground from boutique gym to cultural brand. Across seven clubs in Greater Sydney, each designed around its community, they’ve built a network where architecture drives behaviour and belonging. The newest sits above the Victoria Cross Metro station in North Sydney—around 2000sq m over four levels within Lendlease’s 42-storey Victoria Cross Tower . ▲ The foyer at One Playground North Sydney features curved walls, warm metallic finishes and soft natural light. Designed for commuters and corporates who live life between meetings, the club balances glass, metal, stone, art and light with precision. The fitout took 18 weeks from shell to completion. “It wasn’t meant to be this big,” Ashley says. “It was actually meant to be two levels and I pushed for four … so here we are.” Designing for demographics The project began with data. Lendlease shared detailed research on North Sydney’s workforce and residential mix. The numbers told Ashley why some operators miss the point—people in corporate districts need decompression as much as drive. ▲ A traditional timber sauna is part of the recovery offering at the North Sydney gym. “We design based on the demographics of the area and then the space we’re given,” he says. “Because it’s a corporate area and because it’s a corporate building, we couldn’t do something like we did with Urban Oasis … so we didn’t try and recreate it where it doesn’t feel natural.” Urban Oasis, opened last year across the road from One Playground’s original Surry Hills gym on Elizabeth Street ( pictured below ), expands the brand’s flagship into wellness. The original site, launched more than a decade ago under the Fitness Playground brand, was all energy and grit—climbing ropes, steel and sweat. Delete Urban Oasis, in contrast, occupies a former textile house at Holt Street. Its exposed beams and industrial character are softened with Pilates, yoga and sauna spaces. The North Sydney club swaps raw edge for refined energy—an aesthetic tuned to its neighbourhood. It’s a deliberate strategy. By building around local context rather than repeating a house style, each One Playground club develops its own audience and identity. In a saturated market, differentiation drives retention. Transcendence, not just training The concept behind North Sydney is transcendence—a physical and personal ascent. “We created this beautiful film that sits on the windows; it makes it feel like we’re in the clouds,” Ashley says from the top-floor, mirrored-ceiling Pilates studio. “The concept here was around transcendence. You come in on the ground and you’re elevating all the time. And we wanted to have the double meaning of elevating personally as well.” ▲ The reformer Pilates studio features mirrored ceilings and neutral finishes designed to engender calm and focus. Each floor follows this cue. The reformer studio glows in soft light. Pulse and Surge studios below shift darker and faster. A dedicated cycle space builds energy through light and sound, while a sauna and recovery zones provide contrast—an intentional rise and release. Materials—stone, metal, timber, glass—ground the movement in tactility. Works by artist Amya Pesce line the corridors, adding texture and colour to the architecture. For designers, the insight is clear: sensory control drives engagement. The more a space supports how people want to feel, the more likely they are to return. Speed, scale and precision ▲ The Surge cycle studio combines light and sound for high-intensity training sessions. “It’s not easy to build a four-level gym in 18 weeks and make it look like this,” Ashley says. “It’s pretty phenomenal.” Fast delivery isn’t the story; precision under pressure is. Every detail—foot lockers, transitions, material junctions—was designed to perform under constant wear. The brand’s construction partner has now delivered seven gyms in 11 years, each with distinct design language and identical functional demands. The spaces are designed to last as well as impress. And longevity, in commercial terms, is cost control. From amenity to anchor The North Sydney club is at the heart of Lendlease’s $1.2-billion Victoria Cross precinct, above the Metro moving thousands of people a day. “North Sydney doesn’t need more corporate buildings,” Ashley says. “What it needs is more amenities.” ▲ The yoga studio is designed for light, space and calm, with floor-to-ceiling windows framing the city outside. His argument was persuasive enough to double the floorplate from two to four levels. The result is not just a gym but a social anchor—a space where movement, recovery and connection replace fluorescent foyers and empty lobbies. For developers, it’s a lesson in mixed-use value. A well-designed gym doesn’t just fill a tenancy; it adds utility to the entire building. ▲ Change rooms feature warm tones, marble finishes and minimalist lighting for a refined finish. Since its first Surry Hills club, One Playground’s mission has been simple: inspire change. Ashley’s version of change isn’t abstract—it’s behavioural. “How do we create a space people actually want to exercise in and enjoy?” he says. “If we can do that, maybe people will make exercise part of their lifestyle.” With each new site raising the bar in design ambition and delivery speed, the investment isn’t just visual—it’s strategic. A space people love to be in is a space they keep coming back to. ▲ A curved lounge with layered lighting and mesh curtains offers a calm space between training zones. Beyond the gym Ashley says their next projects will follow the same pattern—sites chosen for context, not convenience. “If we can create something with a level of difference, something more than a gym, we’ll look at it,” he says. In Merrylands, One Playground ( pictured below) anchors Coronation Property’s $646-million Mason &amp; Main precinct —a five-building residential and retail development covering 12,400 square metres. The gym spans roughly 3000sq m across two levels and its terracotta-render walls, stone finishes, arches and high ceilings reference the suburb’s former brickworks and manufacturing base. Delete Private recovery suites, saunas and multiple studios lift the experience beyond a standard gym floor. Haymarket, by contrast, pivots into nightclub mode—intense lighting, immersive sound and cinematic scale. Each club explores a different way to make movement aspirational without losing grit. As North Sydney’s glass facade filters the late light, it’s clear this isn’t about luxury. It’s about longevity, identity and use. Ashley’s philosophy sums it up neatly: “We just create spaces people actually want to be in.”

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