October 14, 2019

Text: Jesse Dorris

Eight Inc. Creates First Keepland Gym in Beijing for Chinese Digital Fitness App Maker

A hallway leads to the right to the locker room’s graphic storage cabinets, and, in the back, a metal pegboard wall for fitness equipment. Photography courtesy of Keep.

The Chinese digital fitness startup Keep has over 40 million active monthly users for its HIIT and weight-training videos, not to mention devoted fans of its fitness and fashion products. And now they have a physical place to meet—and sweat—thanks to Eight Inc.’s 5,000-square-foot flagship Keepland gym, located in the heart of the Beijing Fun development in Qianmen.

“Keep wanted a space where it can heighten the emotional aspect for its members through music, lights, and human encouragement,” says Eight Inc. managing director Alan Lin, who worked with CEO and design lead Tim Kobe. “And we wanted to create an entirely different workout experience.”

Custom hardwood flooring, signage, and a grid of LED strip lights create a flexible space for Fitness Studio 2’s yoga and dance classes. Photography courtesy of Keep.

Users follow wayfinding LEDs to a sign-in wall to scan their QR code, then pick up a heart rate monitor and set off for the studios. Perforated wood panels display retail products in the community area and gym equipment in the fitness studios. “We used a similar pegboard system in the hallway, this time in brushed metal panels,” the Eight Inc. designer says, “which allows lit graphic icons to be changed.” For a company looking to expand across China, such flexibility matters as much as it does to the users stretching along with Keep’s Yoga videos.

A custom grid of modifiable LED strip lights follows the shape of Fitness Studio 1. Photography courtesy of Keep.
A custom neon logo is reflected in the lobby’s brushed-stainless-steel planes. Photography courtesy of Keep.
LED strip lights embedded in the ceiling serve as lighting and wayfinding between a left-hand wall of black mirror and a right-hand wall of black-tinted glass, concealing Fitness Studio 2. Photography courtesy of Keep.

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