Located on an island in the eastern Caribbean, the Health and Fitness Center is perched high above the facilities of a classic mid-century club. The center was designed to accommodate a broad range of functions as the club plans for the future and embraces the changing needs of its multi-generational membership. Among the owners of the earlier houses there is an appreciation of the original modest structures, living standards and the simple pleasures of the climate and the sea. In keeping with the sensibilities of past development, we worked to create a long, freestanding building that benefits from the abundance of sunshine and wind, it’s spectacular site, and views.

The building collects and stores rainwater, and functions as an open-air pavilion that works well for health and fitness activities, social events, and as a meeting space. It bridges the gap between the aspirations for a simplicity that is respectful of the club’s founding vision and the need for facilities that provide for the aging and changing membership.

The site is elevated in the native bush typical of Antigua. Nestled below the brow of a hill, it has a panoramic view of the rolling terrain and the brilliant waters of the bay and ocean beyond. The structure is carved out of the coral stone slope to form a shelf over which floats a massive post-and-beam, wood-framed shed roof. Under the roof is an open-air yoga terrace, a glass enclosed exercise facility, and pavilions containing reception, physical therapy studio, and changing rooms. Working closely with the landscape architecture team and built by local masons using native coral stone quarried from the site—terraces, pathways and coral stone walls cascade down the slope—to an Olympic-sized pool with a shade pavilion and outdoor showers. Native plantings and trees surround the terraced structure, obscuring facilities below as they fall away from the building site towards the bay, sea and distant horizon. The long sloping roof, with its sheltering overhangs seem to float above it all, like a sail filled by the wind.

The result is a pavilion that becomes its own place, a destination that is a surprise upon arrival, evoking a feeling that perhaps it has always been there, and by its construction and integration into the landscape, perhaps always will.