Wellness Department GymGym fit-out design over two levels · Campbelltown

A large fitness and wellness facility across two levels, with strength and cardio training, boxing, yoga and group classes under one roof, for a wide mix of members. It had to feel organised and comfortable from the moment people arrive.

The challenges were size and height. At 3,000 m², the plan needed to read easily, with calmer areas kept apart from the high-energy training floors. And across parts of the lower-ground level, the ceiling is low, which leaves little room for ductwork.

The planning is built on clear, easy-to-read zones, so the building flows naturally and the yoga and recovery spaces stay separate from the training floors. Warm timber, soft lighting and trailing greenery give the interior a relaxed, wellness-led character that balances the harder edge of the training areas.

On the lower-ground level, we planned the mechanical ventilation into the design from the start. Air moves well throughout, and the ductwork stays clear of the tight ceiling space.

Our work covered the briefing, interior design, documentation and approval coordination. The building now holds a main training floor of strength and cardio machines and boxing bags, a recovery nook with a timber sauna behind glass, and a planted lounge beside the training floor.

A gym puts more load, more noise and more air movement into a building than most tenants do, and a two-level gym does it twice.

Start with the use. Planning law treats a gym as an indoor recreation facility, a different use from a shop, office or warehouse, and that change isn't on NSW's exempt change-of-use list. Moving a gym into an existing building therefore generally needs a development application or a complying development certificate. Councils look closely at neighbours: the City of Sydney, for example, asks for an acoustic report for gyms likely to cause noise and vibration for neighbouring uses or located in a mixed-use building, and gym consents can come with a plan of management and limits on opening hours.

Then the structure. Racks, machines and dropped weights put loads on an upper floor that an office or shop floor may not have been designed for. In one Inner West application, council questioned whether the existing floor could carry the proposed gym equipment and asked for a structural engineer's report. Get that report before you sign for an upper level.

Then the air. A busy training floor needs plenty of fresh air and cooling, and ducts need ceiling space. Where the ceiling is low, the ventilation has to be designed together with the layout from the first sketch.

And with two levels, the stairs, any lift and the accessible path between floors belong in the plan from the first sketch.