Yoga with Friends
Karen, Nairobi · 2023
A private yoga studio in Karen designed for six practitioners. The practice room is lined with light birch plywood panels on walls and ceiling, with a full-height mirror wall on one side and a large backlit linen-textured focal wall framed in black at the opposite end. Grey mats with bolsters and blocks are laid in two rows on a polished concrete floor. The studio complex includes a numbered locker room with a bench and timber peg hooks, a dark WC with a plywood toilet wall, a dark vanity washroom with a round backlit mirror and vessel basin, and a plywood-clad storage corridor.
The Brief
Design an exclusive six-person private yoga studio in Karen with a calm, uncluttered material palette and a range of support spaces including changing, storage and amenities.
Our Approach
Light birch plywood was specified throughout as the dominant surface material — walls, ceiling, locker fronts, WC panel and corridor — giving every space in the complex the same material language. In the practice room, the mirror wall extends the space visually while the backlit linen focal wall provides a warm, low-stimulus focal point for practice. The locker room is kept tight and functional: numbered plywood lockers with leather-pull handles, a lit floating bench and timber peg hooks on the adjacent wall. The dark WC and vanity rooms are finished in contrast — near-black walls with the plywood restricted to a single functional panel — so the transition between spaces gives a deliberate change of register.
Interested in a similar project?
Tell us about your brief and we'll set up a conversation.
