village Hotel
WHAT COULD YOUR UNDERSUSED SPACE BECOME?
Sometimes the opportunity inside a fitness facility isn't about making the existing gym bigger. It's about looking at a space that's no longer working hard enough and asking what else it could become.
At Village Hotels, that question started with a squash court in Warrington.
The ambition was to transform it into something completely different: a boutique-style boxing concept within the wider club.
Three months after opening, classes are already running at full or near-full capacity.
But getting there required much more than putting a few punch bags in a room.
a club within a club
The ambition from the beginning was to create something that felt like its own experience.
A dedicated boxing concept that could sit within the wider Village fitness offer, combining the atmosphere and identity of a boutique studio with the accessibility of a larger club. Importantly, it needed to make boxing enjoyable and approachable for a much broader audience.
The resulting class concept combines different styles of boxing stations with fitness stations inspired by the physical demands and movements of the sport. Members move through a bootcamp-style workout, following exercises on screens positioned throughout the studio. That technology serves another important purpose. Rather than spending the session repeatedly demonstrating every movement, coaches have more time to do what great coaches do best: Coach. Motivate. Correct. Encourage.
Designing An Experience, Not Just A Room
From the beginning, the visual brief was clear.
Old-school boxing gym.
But creating something authentic isn't as simple as adding a few vintage references to a moodboard.
So we went looking for the real thing.
The team visited traditional boxing gyms to understand what gives those environments their character the materials, equipment, details and sense of history that make them immediately recognisable.
Those references then helped inform a space that captures the essence of an old-school boxing environment while still delivering the quality and functionality expected within a modern Village club.
When Off-The-Shelf Isn't The Answer
The equipment needed the same level of consideration.
Working alongside Village, boxing and technology specialists, builders and fitness teams, Stronger developed fully custom equipment for the studio, including a bespoke leather range across the different boxing bags.
The objective wasn't customisation for the sake of it.
The equipment needed to perform properly for the different boxing stations while contributing to the identity of the room.
Because in a concept this visually distinctive, equipment isn't something you add after the design is finished.
It's part of the design.
Different Specialists. One Experience.
Projects like this rarely come from one company working in isolation.
Creating the studio brought together people with very different areas of expertise.
- Village's fitness and operational teams.
- Boxing specialists.
- Technology specialists.
- Builders.
- Designers.
- And Stronger.
Months of development meant bringing those perspectives together around one shared ambition.
For the member walking through the door, none of those individual disciplines should be obvious.
They should simply experience one coherent class, in one brilliant space.
That's when collaboration has worked.
Technology That Gives Coaching Back To The Coach
Technology within fitness spaces is often discussed in terms of what it can add to a workout.
Here, its value is also in what it gives back.
With screens guiding participants through movements and stations, the coach doesn't need to be the sole source of information throughout every second of the class. Instead, they can spend more time interacting with individuals and the wider group.
More motivation, observation, coaching – energy.
The technology supports the experience without trying to replace the person at the centre of it.
From Squash Court To Full Classes
Ultimately, the success of any new fitness concept isn't measured by how good it looks when the doors open. It's whether members want to use it.
Just three months after launch, the new boxing studio is already exceeding expectations, with classes operating at full or near-full capacity, with a predominantly female audience.
That's a particularly exciting result given where the project started.
One existing squash court.
One idea for what it could become.
And a team willing to completely rethink its purpose.
“We wanted to create something genuinely different within the club - an experience that made boxing accessible and enjoyable whether somebody had boxed before or was trying it for the first time. The collaboration across the project has allowed us to combine coaching, technology, fitness and a really distinctive environment into one concept. To see classes already running at or close to capacity just a few months after opening has been incredibly encouraging.”
Andy Logan, Group Leisure Operations Manager, Village Hotels
LOOK AT THE SPACE DIFERENTLY
Fitness trends change.
Member expectations change.
And sometimes spaces that once made perfect sense within a club no longer represent the best use of valuable square footage.
That doesn't make those spaces redundant.
It makes them an opportunity.
A squash court can become a boutique studio.
An underused room can create an entirely new member experience.
And the right combination of concept, design, equipment, technology and coaching can give members another reason to engage with the club.
Sometimes the most valuable question isn't: “What should we put in this space?”
It's: “What could this space become?”
PROJECT DETAILS
Organisation
Village Hotels
Sector
Hospitality / Health & Fitness
Project
Squash Court Conversion / Boutique Boxing Studio
Concept
Boxing • Conditioning • Bootcamp-Style Training
Equipment
Bespoke Boxing Equipment • Custom Leather Boxing Bags
Scope
Concept Development • Custom Equipment • Studio Experience • Multi-Specialist Collaboration
Focus Areas
Space Repurposing • Boutique Fitness • Boxing • Technology • Member Experience • Group Exercise