While driving back into the City I passed an Oasis Station that sat above the highway and was coupled with an i-pass station. This got me thinking about how many people really go through these stations everyday here in Chicago let alone other major cities in the U.S and the world. How many of those people are the same individuals who sit in their car for hours on end and hope for a more active lifestyle. With people now saying that sitting is the new smoking, I decided to see what kinds of healthy initiatives were being set into place by designers to help with this issue. This is when I came across an initiative that has begun with the architectural firm of Gensler and the athletic corporation of Reebok. They have a wild idea about turning gas stations into fitness hubs and the core ideas behind it are actually pretty interesting.
The two began their partnership when Gensler was hired to help Reebok move to downtown Boston. It was then that the two decided that they could help change peoples activity by allowing different spaces outside of the norms in gas stations, which could then be a copied to other gas stations around the world. Their concept is called "Get Pumped" and the idea is based off the fact that the future holds other ways of fueling up vehicles than just natural fossil fuels like gasoline. Is there a way that these current gas fueling stations could turn into activity fueling stations?
The design process behind this intervention is actually what has been a big interest to me mostly because of Gensler's idea of different scales, which is also an idea that Luz Upegui and I are bringing into our own design for this semesters studio. The different scales from larges to smallest are as follows:
- The Network: Serving as power grids
- The Oasis: Serving as recharge centers
- The Community Center: Serving as centers for smaller town involvement.
This article was really interesting because as a studio we are looking at very different and conceptual ways to address very complex healthcare issues in the city. It is really nice to be able to see real life firms that are also pushing the boundaries of what we consider architecture and planning different adaptive reuse strategies for these structures in the future.
Check out more on the article at:
https://www.archdaily.com/888009/reebok-teams-up-with-gensler-to-turn-gas-stations-into-fitness-hubs
https://www.gensler.com/research-insight/in-focus/the-gym-of-the-future-is-closer-than-you-think
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