Fitness First Group has debuted its exclusive new health club concept, Gravity. The first Gravity club launched in Singapore earlier this month – designed by Fitness First and HBA – while Fitness First is understood to have ambitions of bringing a marquee site to London at a later date. The US$7.3m (€6.5m, £4.7m) gym sits proudly at the top of the new CapitaGreen Tower in the Singapore Central Business District,

Transport for London (TFL) has issued a public tender for a designer and supplier to create the next generation of ‘Boris Bikes’ and inspire more Londoners to get active. Although the contract to supply bikes for London’s public cycle network doesn’t expire until 2017, TFL is already on the hunt for a new party to take on the job of designing, building, testing and supplying the next generation of bikes

A £16m neighbourhood hub designed to provide leisure, health and cultural services in Great Sankey, Warrington, UK, has been given the green light by planning officials. Local government organisation, Warrington Borough unanimously agreed to approve operator LiveWire’s proposal to transform the existing Great Sankey Leisure Centre into a multi-purpose community hub. The new building will feature a wide range of leisure facilities to provide residents with a one-stop-shop for all

A new £200m UK investment fund seeking opportunities to acquire leisure properties has completed its first three transactions and is on the hunt for further assets. Property investment company Otium Real Estate raised £200m in December 2014 for its leisure-focused fund Otium Leisure Ventures, which seeks to add value through active asset management. Exclusively targeting leisure real estate – such as leisure parks, city centre leisure blocks and stand-alone assets

Designs from Hopkins Architects, Amanda Levete and Arup (two entries) are among those in final contention for a new £40m pedestrian and cycle bridge across London's River Thames intended to boost active commuting. Active design has been a hot topic in recent months, especially in light of new research which found cities which strive to promote physical activity gain a significant economic advantage. A study from cycling charity Sustrans, meanwhile,

Investor, developer and operator, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, is on site with Shangri-la at the Fort, a mixed-use development in Manila, the Philippines which will open in Q4 this year. The building will be one of the tallest in the country at 250m (820ft) and one of the first luxury lifestyle developments in the Philippines. Shangri-la at the Fort will include a Shangri-La hotel and residences, as well as Horizon

Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners founder Richard Rogers has launched a UK parliamentary inquiry into how design in planning can affect behaviour change. Rogers kicked off the eight-month-long Design Commission inquiry in the Houses of Parliament in London this week. The cross-party investigation aims to explore how the increased use of design in planning of the built environment could lead to positive behaviour change in local communities. The inquiry comes

New research has reinforced the long-held view that cities which strive to promote physical activity gain a significant economic advantage. The findings, presented this week at an Active Cities Summit in Bristol, show that investing in parks and green spaces, removing the barriers to active commuting and encouraging exercise in schools and offices can pay sizeable dividends. The University of California study – which was commissioned by Nike and UK

Equinox Holdings, parent company of high end US health club chain Equinox Fitness, is preparing to launch an upscale hospitality brand. Plans are afoot for 75 hotels worldwide, each with a fitness facility within the hotel, or very close, which would be open to hotel guests as well as members. The first site is slated for Manhattan in 2018, as part of the massive Hudson Yards scheme. It is a

Health and wellness expert Henri Chenot will open the second ‘Espace Cure’ hotel – a destination retreat – to have its entire structure dedicated to his health and wellness programmes. This second hotel, which is set to open in Q2 2016, will be designed by international architect and interior designer Michel Jouannet and located in Gabala, Azerbaijan. The first of these ‘Espace Cure’-structured hotels, which opened in 1980, is Chenot’s

Architecture practice Studio Octopi’s dream of sparking a “swimming revolution” by creating a floating freshwater pool in London’s River Thames has today (23 April) become the subject of an ambitious crowdfunding campaign. The Thames Baths project – which has won high-profile backing from figures including artist Tracey Emin and London mayor Boris Johnson – was last month incorporated as a CIC (Community Interest Company), meaning the public space will be

Studio Octopi – the architecture practice behind innovative plans to make outdoor swimming in London’s Thames a reality – have won an invited competition to design a new version of Peckham Rye Lido, also in the UK capital. The practice’s reputation for aquatic innovation proved a hit with Peckham Rye Lido campaign founders Ben Lloyd-Ennals and Jim Glynn, who chose Octopi’s designs over those of fellow contestant Red Deer architects.

Japanese architects are getting out of the blocks in terms of promoting active design ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with Narita Airport’s newly-opened Terminal 3 centred around an indoor running track. The Tokyo Olympics will have a strong theme of active design, with Arup set to masterplan the Games. The cycling helmet-shaped Olympic Stadium has been designed by Zaha Hadid, while several other wellness-related facilities are also in the

The Sports and Leisure Working Party Group of the International Union of Architects (UIA) has announced it will examine the legacies of the most recent Olympic Games – London 2012 – and most recent Commonwealth Games – Glasgow 2014 – at a seminar and site visit to be held in London on 12 and 13 June. The venue will be the office of Space Syntax. The group will also tour the Olympic

Designed by Rotterdam-based Ooze Architects, a naturally filtered swimming pool is under construction in the heart of London’s King’s Cross redevelopment. Ooze Architects, working in collaboration with Slovenia-based artist Marjetica Potrc, have come together to create the freshwater pond. The structure will be 10m (32ft) wide and 40m (131ft) long. Completely chemical free, the pool, which will be used for swimming and outdoor activities, will be surrounded by a green

Under the umbrella of Kenya Vision 2030, The DLR Group have released designs for a 30,000 seat stadium for Kenyatta University, near Nairobi, Kenya. Currently at the concept phase, DLR Group have carried out masterplanning, sustainable consulting and architecture services for the scheme so far. Kenya's Ministry of Sports, Culture and Arts intends for 20 new stadia to be built by 2030, and DLR’s proposed scheme fits the bill. Situated

Arendon Development Company has announced that architecture firms John Pawson, Richard Meier and Eva Jiricná will be designing elements of a large mixed-use scheme, the Oaks Prague, in the Czech Republic. The development, masterplanned by EDSA with Chapman Taylor and John Thompson and Partners, is based on a village concept, with wellness and healthy living built into its core. London-based firm, John Pawson, is drawing up plans for the epicentre

Matt Gibbs, a landscape architecture student, has come up with a proposal for a frosty new transport network. An 11km (6.8m) long ‘Freezeway’ that will offer people a chance to ice skate to work. Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, maintains an average sub-zero temperature throughout the winter. Instead of seeing these conditions as a challenge, Gibbs wants to harness this environment and create a dual function commuter network that acts as

Belatchew Architects have revealed designs for a bike garage in the centre of Stockholm, Sweden, to cater for the city's growing ranks of cyclists: it will have parking facilities for up to 700 bikes. The project – still in the early stages – will be built on a site next to a major train station. The garage will also act as a community space, with cafés, repair shops and social

Design firm Gensler has been awarded a London Planning Award for its London Underline concept – a network of cycle and pedestrian paths running beneath the city. Gensler first came up with the idea for the London Underline in 2014. With London’s population higher than ever, the firm looked for ways to expand public space and offer alternative transport routes. The answer, they found, was underground in disused tube tunnels.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has announced finalised plans for a new cycle superhighway in the UK capital. After what Johnson called “one of the the biggest consultation exercises in Transport for London’s (TfL’s) history”, plans have been given the green light by the mayor, who has pledged £913m (€1,222m, US$1,386m) towards getting Londoners back on their bikes. The scheme will create Europe’s longest segregated urban cycle way through central

Launching in April, an online crowdfunding campaign is looking for £250,000 (US$383,425, €336,544) to make outdoor swimming in London’s Thames a reality. Plans for an outdoor swimming pool, known as the Thames Baths, have been in the works for a while. Originally designed for a competition “London As It Could Be Now” in early 2014, architecture practice Studio Octopi came up with the initial outline for the project. The practice,

Aman Resorts, known for its high-end hotels in exotic locations, has opened its first urban property, an 84-bedroom hotel in Tokyo’s financial district. The Aman Tokyo is the company’s first Japanese venture and occupies the top six floors of The Otemachi Tower. Kerry Hill Architects was in charge of the interior design, which mirrors local cultures and traditions, with shoji paper sliding doors and a Japanese engawa porch. Two floors

A 17.6km (10.9mile) long cycleway will be built in Jiaozhou, China, designed by architecture and design firm Mecanoo. The Golden Ribbon cycling route will be funded by the World Bank and is the result of research on ‘innovation in mobility’ by the University of Shandong. The cycleway has been designed for “connectivity, comfort and experience”, while encouraging the use of bikes to improve public health, air quality and the environment.

Dubai developer of integrated communities, Emaar Properties, has opened The Burj Club – an exclusive fitness and wellness retreat in Downtown Dubai, adjacent to the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. The 6,320sq m (62, 028sq ft) five-storey health club comprises a fitness centre, spa, juice bar and rooftop pool. Male and female sectioned gym facilities spread across 590sq m (5,597sq ft). The equipment is all connected to the centre’s ‘mywellness’

Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has unveiled what is arguably the world’s most artistic cycle path in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Vincent Van Gogh’s death. The high-end cycling highway consists of more than 50,000 solar powered, glow in the dark stones which appear to glitter and swirl in a Van Gogh-like fashion after dark. The installation was inspired by Van Gogh’s famous ‘Starry Night’ oil on

When it comes to how best to cater for cyclists in the UK’s capital, more ideas are being "floated" than ever before. The latest is the Thames Deckway, a 7-mile (11km) stretch of cycle path that would float alongside the banks of London’s famed river. Thames Deckway is a concept proposed by River Cycleway Consortium, which is led by architect David Nixon and environmental entrepreneur Anna Hill, in conjunction with