Virgin Active’s first fitness club in Chiang Mai and in the North of Thailand draws its inspiration from the physical traces that are left after the action of an active force on physical space, such as when a martial artist smashes a fist through a stack of bricks. This is a metaphor for fitness, as we push our active bodies against the static forces around us, which is what increases our own fitness.

Right from the club entry, the walking path pierces diagonally into the rectilinear space and then figuratively explodes outwardly as it reaches the Active Grid at the centre of the open area of the gym. This scattering manifests itself as a deconstructed 3-dimensional grid of blue and white lighted lines that spread across the open training area ceiling. Upon reaching the 3 high energy studios (Box, HIIT and Ride), the traces of this outward force are then solidified in a dynamically contorted pattern of colour-blocked bands across the floor, wall and ceiling, bridging from room to room. Finally, as this energy has begun to attenuate, the Mind Body studio settles us down into a pause of woodland serenity.