The coolest studio fit made in a church?! Are you ready to sweat in London?
The Engine Room London - Designed by Bergman Design House
Did you read that right? Yes, the coolest studio fit is residing in a church in London! And with a banger like this one, we would like to welcome you back to our series of fitness studios in London! It is truly a dream come true, that we are able to share not one gym remodel with you, but the full transformation of many beautiful interiors, one of them becoming a franchise and winning awards!
Previously we have introduced WE 11’s forward thinking gym concept with a minimal design on two levels, that are completely different from one another. With its hourly membership program and co-working coffee & lounge, it is truly one of a kind, if you ask us. You will not find another gym in London, where you can combine work and fitness so well. If you are only in the city for a few days, but you are serious about your workout routine, WE 11 will be the perfect choice for you! A quick matcha tea, morning meetings and afterwards you are a staircase away from your daily workout routine!
Now let’s move to something, we have never anticipated would happen: another project of ours has become a franchise! Yes, BXR London didn’t just get featured on Vogue, GQ and Forbes, and won awards, but decided to start moving all around London and from there to the Middle East! We are happy to tell you, London's most famous boxing club, backed by Anthony Joshua is now present in Qatar too! You can have the same boxing and gym experience as in the heart of London, however in Qatar, BXR has levelled up with a full yoga studio, to make sure you can relax after a strong cardio session!
And while all of these projects are near and dear to our hearts, this time we are going to present a completely different experience for you - both in design and workout. When we said this is the coolest studio fit in London, we meant it. Now let’s see why!
A grade II listed Rowing Studio Fit - The Engine Room
The Engine Room London - Designed by Bergman Design House
The absolute challenge of this space has started from its structure, as it is a Grade II listed church. On its own it may not mean so much, if someone is unfamiliar with the concept of listed buildings, so please allow us to explain it in a few words:
“A listed building may not be demolished, extended, or altered without special permission from the local planning authority, which typically consults the relevant central government agency, particularly for significant alterations to the more notable listed buildings. In England and Wales, a national amenity society must be notified of any work to a listed building which involves any element of demolition.
Exemption from secular listed building control is provided for some buildings in current use for worship, but only in cases where the relevant religious organization operates its own equivalent permissions procedure. Owners of listed buildings are, in some circumstances, compelled to repair and maintain them and can face criminal prosecution if they fail to do so or if they perform unauthorized alterations. When alterations are permitted, or when listed buildings are repaired or maintained, the owners are often required to use specific materials or techniques.”
Quoted from Wikipedia.
It made our work slightly more complicated, but luckily we have been designing in the scenes of England the past five years, therefore we were used to the challenge, although a rowing studio fitness has been somewhat of an exceptional request. We had to make sure it combined modernity and tradition in a seamless way.
How we designed The Engine Room
The Engine Room London - Designed by Bergman Design House
The Engine Room London - Designed by Bergman Design House
Our solution was to suspend the equipment from on high or attach it to panels, rather than alter the fabric of the church. The result is an inspiring space where design, music and expertise come together in an energetic way. Naturally, the church’s original stained glass windows were retained and lend a spiritual air to the café, with pews repainted in a serene blue that links with a more intense Yves Klein-like blue in other areas.
The redesign extended to the smallest bespoke details, such as embossed door handles, and has helped to establish London’s first boutique rowing studio as a leader in its field, backed by double World Champion Matthew Tarrant.
The studio is fully equipped with Technogym’s new Skillrow rowers, with each having a screen on which can track your performance using a variation of metrics, starting from the calories you have burnt to your 500 meter split time, which measures how quickly you would complete 500 meters.
The studio also offers different types of measurements on your progress, so you can also have a data based workout.
With these features and design elements, we were able to design a space, where this incredible rowing studio was able to open its doors. But what is a rowing studio? How do we need to look at this type of workout, when we have no experience with it?
Rowing Studio - The Engine Room
The Engine Room London - Designed by Bergman Design House
The Engine Room London - Designed by Bergman Design House
Rowing is one of the greatest exercises your body can have - as it moves 85% of your muscles, across nine muscle groups. It works your heart, lungs, upper body, lower body, tones your arms as well as strengthens your back. Some would argue this type of workout can be even better for your body, than the treadmill, however this is something we believe you should definitely try for yourself!
The workout sessions, designed by Chris Heron are 50 minutes long and have a range of variety. You can have one on one sessions, where you learn the basics of rowing, so you can become confident in your skills moving forward. To top that, they have a signature class called Beats and Breathe, which have been designed with the help of British rower and Olympic gold medallist, Matthew Tarrant, who has trained together with Chris Heron before competing in the Irish National Indoor Rowing Championship.
To make it even more exciting, the colors are changing and pulsing to the beat, as well as the speed of your rowing. Talking about adrenaline, and motivation, right?
The perfect studio fit for a full body workout
The Engine Room London - Designed by Bergman Design House
While it may sound like a lot to learn at first, this workout can be an experience you have never had before and we would like to highly encourage you to try out something completely new to you. If you think rowing on its own isn’t something you would be interested in, we would absolutely like to dare you to go and try it for yourself. Why?
Because we are confident the mixture of the interior, music, energy and light will bring you an experience like no other. We didn’t just design it, we also tried the workouts, so please trust us, when we say you have to go and try it out for yourself.
It was an honor for us to work on this building, as well as on the project and we hope you will love the space and the workouts equally!
About Bergman Design House
Marie Soliman and Albin Berglund, founders of the highly revered Bergman Design House, are the design powerhouse that are making waves in London’s, and now the world's luxury interior and architectural design world. With over 25 years combined experience, Marie and Albin have built up an enviable portfolio of projects, spanning from London to St. Petersburg, to Qatar to New York.
Together they aren’t just creating beautiful interior spaces in a variety of areas, but are also working on sharing their projects and knowledge with their readers. For this reason, they have created a series of articles that are speaking of Interior Design, FF&E design and spaces in a different way.
These articles are here to educate and showcase their knowledge on design, inspiration and the thought process of creating spaces that look exceptional. To top that, they are combined with their upcoming bespoke furniture collection, BlackBerg - which is truly a work of art.
Every piece of furniture is custom made and is designed to flatter your eyes on their own, as a feature piece in your home or as a collection - if you are looking for more exciting pieces to add to your home.
If you have enjoyed this article and you wish to learn more about Bergman Design House, then don’t hesitate to follow us on Instagram and Pinterest, where we are sharing finished and ongoing projects as well, with lots of behind the scenes content to keep you as excited as we are!