Santos Arquitectura Uses a Single Services Box to Split an 81 m² Chihuahua Retail Unit into a Spin Studio

Indoor cycling studios are odd tenants for a shopping plaza. They need darkness, they generate a lot of noise, and they have to share a wall with shops that want neither. In Chihuahua, Mexico, Santos Arquitectura, led by Luis Santos, fit Tres21 Cycle into an 81 m² commercial unit and had to reconcile those demands inside a box that was never designed for them. The brief was short: a room for indoor cycling with very dim lighting and high sound levels.

The interesting part is how little the architects used to solve it. They did not wrap the whole unit in acoustic treatment or wall off each function separately. They placed one services container inside the shell, and it does three jobs at once: it divides public from private space, blocks sightlines, and absorbs sound. The plan settles into three zones, lobby, services and cycling room, and the container holds the sequence together. We think it is a useful lesson in getting the most out of a single move when the floor area is tight.

A Lobby Made from Ordinary Board

The front of house is intentionally plain. The reception counter is made of OSB panels and stands against a block wall with the studio's logo painted straight onto it. There is no polished retail veneer and no backlit signage. The materials suggest a workshop more than a boutique, which fits a client selling sweat rather than spa treatments.

The yellow ledge beside the restroom door turns the lobby into a waiting room without adding furniture. A rider can sit, lace up, and look back toward the counter. In a unit this small, letting a built-in surface serve as seating is how you protect floor area for the bikes.

About the Studio

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