Dubai-based Lulie Fisher Design Studio has completed an immersive, state-of-the-art community facility that offers studios for music, dance, fitness and yoga – composed within a transparent design and using technology as a safety tool in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 5,550m2 Studio Republik is divided into three ‘communities’ including the Arena (a family of studios for aerial , boot camp, cycling and group exercises); the Stage (offering studios for dance, drama and music) and The Lab (an integrated wellness centre including spaces fo yoga and pilates as well as nutrition counseling, personal training and rehabilitative services, approved by the Dubai Health Authority).
The eco-system is complete with a restaurant as well as co-working and performance spaces.
Studio Republik has been purposefully designed to occupy the first and second floors of what was a shell and core office building on Dubai’s main arterial road.
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic , the technology within the project that was originally conceived as a business tool to track and profile member usage, has now seamlessly been re-deployed to keep members safe i with the help of access control gates, smart wristbands and booking apps to control capacity, protect personal space and reduce the need for surface contact.
The overall transparent nature of the design provides a backdrop of visual stimulation and creativity. The music studios are punctured with large acoustic windows, allowing visibility into the Technical Studios and Ensemble Rooms. The Boot Camp with its Tron style lighting grid and RGB-coloured lighting wands, provides the backdrop to the reception via acoustically glazed walls which also line the PT gym and GX studios. Every studio has its own unique design and finishes palette but follows a comprehensive design language.
With sustainability very much on the agenda, all materials have been locally sourced and all furniture and feature elements have been designed and locally manufactured to reduce the carbon footprint.
In the lobby, walls and ceilings are lined with fins of glowing coloured glass, mirrors and mesh conceal dense acoustic absorbency while 4K projectors imprint images onto gently swaying curtains.
On the first floor the journey continues down the 100m long “street”, lined with a lustrous dark blue woven wall covering to reception to the accompaniment of angled trick lighting and 8m wide edge bled projections, delivering inspirational and educational messages.
The restaurant, ROHA, is set within a central location with a staircase connection to the upper floor and access to the performance stage.
The palette is raw yet refined, combining timber and concrete in the floor, blue stone bar counters, a sculptural concrete feature wall with a graphite metallic sheen and accents of pale blue and tan leather in the furniture.
The Arena studios have been designed to create an immersive experience for the exhilarating adrenaline rush of the high impact classes being run within. The material palette for these areas has a raw night-club style aesthetic juxtaposed with sumptuous touches of glamour. The spaces are characterised by shiny black timbers, polished concrete, finned mirror planks providing endless reflections and black, pink and turquoise over-scaled floral wall coverings which wrap the ceilings and walls of the Aerial Studio.
The Stage has a warm, hospitable yet edgy palette of oak, recycled white brick, mirrors and ballet barres, black rubbers, meshes, wool crepe fabrics, deep burgundy and black velvet drapes and soft terracotta hues on the walls.
The Lab is designed to be a sanctuary for enhanced well being and combines the light and ethereal aesthetic of grey timbers and billowing white sheers with the rigour of Japanese-style modulated screens, lined with backlit glowing shoji papers and white glass.
