Anytime Fitness – Croxley Amenity Hub

Croxley Park, a vibrant community of businesses and amenities, sits in 75 acres of green parkland on the outskirts of Watford. The site’s old gym was tucked away at the back of a building, but with health and wellbeing increasingly at the heart of the park’s ethos, a new state-of-the-art gym was to become a focal point.

Centrally located next to The Hive café and lake, the entrance/reception area and staff rooms are on the ground floor. Weight and resistance training is also on the ground floor, designed so the sound of dropping heavy weights doesn’t reverberate through the building. On the first floor cardio machines look out over the water from full height windows. This not only creates interest for gym users looking out but is also a gentle reminder of the concept of healthy living for passers-by looking in.

The saw-toothed roof and double storey multi-gabled elevation were designed to maximise natural light within the main first floor gym and ensure the structure sat well with the other Hive buildings. The multi pitched form helped keep the ridge down across a wide footprint and provided plenty of area to carefully position rooflights. The roof gradient also showcases the standing seam ‘zinc effect’ metal panels which help break up the massing and align with the vertical timber slat cladding and double height curtain wall glazing.

Movable walls can separate the main gym for creating enclosed rooms for classes. Changing rooms sit at the back of the building next to plantrooms. A BMS energy monitoring and metering system highlights any sources of excessive energy consumption in the building alongside a raft of other energy-saving measures.