One route, one colour per zone and one graphic language across seven units that had nothing in common. The seven Synergym gyms were designed between 2014 and 2015 in Málaga, Fuengirola, Marbella and Estepona, all inside buildings that already existed. The challenge was not the standard gym but getting seven very different floor plans, from 840 to 1,500 m², to be walked through in the same way and recognised the moment you step inside.
The brief
The client runs a national chain of low-cost gyms, and that model sets the rules: quick openings, and units taken wherever they come up rather than where they would ideally sit. We drew up all seven projects between 2014 and 2015 — four in Málaga city, one in Fuengirola, one in Marbella and one in Estepona. None of the seven schemes adds any built floor area. All the work happens inside.
In Los Guindos the unit was an industrial building classed as outside current planning ordinance (fuera de ordenanza): 1,022.92 m² built over ground floor (850.83 m²) and mezzanine (172.09 m²). That made the first centre in the series the slowest to get through the permit process, taking two years to obtain a definitive licence.
Seven Synergym gyms, seven different units
The zone-based design proposal set the order of the route and its codes: colour scheme, graphics, lighting and furniture particular to each zone. It is what lets someone walk into Estepona and know where they are without ever having set foot in the Fuengirola centre. Fitting that order into the real geometry of each site was the part nobody could draw in advance, and it was resolved unit by unit.
The programme repeats across all seven centres: reception, Cardio 1 and Cardio 2, strength room, free weights, functional and CrossFit area, Synrgy 360, an indoor cycling and spinning capsule, activities room, stretching, rack and three changing rooms. What changes is how it is threaded together. Los Tilos occupies two floors — 652.72 and 187.44 m² — so the route splits in two and you have to decide which zones go downstairs and which go upstairs. Los Guindos has a mezzanine. The other five range from 1,163 to 1,500 m², and there the decision is where the noise goes and where the rest areas go.
Materials and construction
In a gym the floor is the element that works hardest: it takes impact, moisture and equipment dragged across it, and not every square metre can stand the same punishment. The flooring is split by zone: ceramic tile, concrete and vinyl, plus rubber where free weights are dropped.
Ceilings follow the same logic in two systems: a continuous acoustic suspended ceiling where there is music and impact, and an accessible (demountable) one where the services have to be reached without breaking anything. Partitions and wall linings are plasterboard; brickwork (perforated 24×11, facing brick and rubble masonry) stays where mass was needed. Each service came with its own project annexe: air conditioning with RITE compliance (Spain’s regulation on thermal installations in buildings), electrical, telecoms, and plumbing with domestic hot water.
The works were carried out by Desarrollo Inversor del Suroeste, S.L., Arquitectura, Ingeniería y Control de Obras, S.L. and Hijos de Terrats Construcciones, S.A.
Permits, environmental clearance and completion
Seven centres spread across four local councils means seven permit files, each moving at its own pace. Three of them also went through calificación ambiental, the Andalusian environmental clearance that authorises the activity separately from the building work. That twin track is what throws opening schedules off — not the drawings.
Los Guindos was the difficult one. Málaga’s planning authority (Gerencia de Urbanismo) authorised the use and the works on a provisional basis in December 2014, and amended that decision twice: in October 2015 and November 2016. Following an appeal for reconsideration (recurso potestativo de reposición), the resolution of 22 December 2016 confirmed that the plot was consolidated urban land — not non-consolidated urban land, as had been assumed until then — and that the industrial unit was outside current planning ordinance. With that, the provisional status was lifted and a definitive licence was granted. The works were completed five days later, on 27 December 2016.
Two of the Málaga city centres had been completed much earlier: Paseo Marítimo Pablo Ruiz Picasso on 5 November 2015 and La Trinidad on 1 December 2015. We managed the works from within the design team itself: setting-out record, monitoring and final completion certificate. The lesson of the series is not about design. Replicating a brand in someone else’s buildings comes down to the floor plan you are given and the permit file you are given, and both change from one unit to the next.
Gallery
Project data
- Typology: Sports retail — renovation and conversion of existing commercial premises into a sports centre
- Use: Sports facility (low-cost gym)
- Location: Los Guindos (Málaga) · Avenida de Mijas (Fuengirola) · Marbella town centre · La Trinidad (Málaga) · Estepona (next to the Orchidarium) · Paseo Marítimo Pablo Ruiz Picasso (Málaga) · Los Tilos (Málaga)
- Design year: 2014-2015
- Construction year: 2014-2016
- Status: Built
- Built area: Over 8,000 m² of existing premises worked on across the seven centres, 840 to 1,500 m² each. Los Guindos: 1,022.92 m² built (ground floor 850.83 + mezzanine 172.09). Los Tilos: two floors of 652.72 and 187.44 m²
- Units: 7 centres
- Client: National low-cost gym chain (Synergym)
- Building contractors: Desarrollo Inversor del Suroeste, S.L. · Arquitectura, Ingeniería y Control de Obras, S.L. · Hijos de Terrats Construcciones, S.A.
- Site management: Klic Arquitectos
- Programme per centre: Reception, Cardio 1 and Cardio 2, strength room, free weights, functional and CrossFit area, Synrgy 360, indoor cycling and spinning capsule, activities room (multi-purpose studio), stretching, rack and three changing rooms
- Klic services: Basic design and construction project (proyecto básico y de ejecución), permit applications and environmental clearance, site management
- Team: Juan A. Goñi Uriarte (architect, COA Málaga no. 1206) · Ruth Buján Varela (architect, COA Málaga no. 1333)
Other Klic Arquitectos projects
Beyond the Synergym gyms, Klic Arquitectos designs residential, public-facility and heritage projects in Málaga and on the Costa del Sol, such as MOSS in the historic centre, Casa Duquesa de Parcent, the proposal for La Equitativa facing Calle Larios, or the Teatinos secondary school competition.
