MAC/One Kanyon

We contributed to the development of the architectural lighting design for the MAC/One sports center, whose architectural design and renovation process was developed by the Mars Sportif Architecture team.

MAC/One Kanyon is a unique and exclusive gym located on the top floor of Kanyon AVM, one of the most dynamic meeting places in Istanbul.

It has been revised as a brand new gym with its renewed appearance and space planning in the new era, supporting the design heritage that many people know and love.

Client Mars Sportif
Architect Mars Sportif 
Collaborators Ege Mimarlık
Electrical Project A&D Elektrik
Location Levent, Sisli, Istanbul, Turkey
Year 2022

Preserving the familiar atmosphere of the venue, which has served as the flagship of MAC gyms for years, was one of the important design inputs.

Mac/One; It consists of a high-ceilinged gallery areas such as the entrance – cafe area, terrace, pool, basketball court, cardio – weight areas spread over two floors overlooking this gallery and studios, changing rooms, sauna, steam room and spa lounge & relaxation areas.

Effectively illuminate a iconic gym presents enormous challenges: large areas, high/low ceilings, daylight through large windows, reflective surfaces.. 

Details such as associating the current light levels familiar to current members with the revised concept guided the design criteria.

In the sales and circulation area on the first floor, certain surfaces are emphasized, graphic textures and direction definition are provided, while consultant desks and the gym transition axis are strengthened.

In this way, it was important for the users who go up to the first floor with the natural light coming from the staircase during the day, to shorten the adaptation time at the time of transition to different brightness levels and to make the space boundaries and direction definitions perceptible when they reach the information desk and head towards the interior.

The general lighting design approach aims to create large, spacious and bright spaces where space users can do sports safely, away from stress. For this purpose, a lighting scheme was designed in which, in addition to the floor and work area, the ceiling and wall planes were defined in a purposeful and balanced manner.

The fact that gym areas have very different ceiling heights, such as approximately 3m and cardio areas 8-10 m, and that these spaces are in constant communication with each other were taken into consideration during the design phase.

Large window openings and strong natural light in areas with low ceilings had an important effect on the feeling of the outdoor space inside during the day and at night. The ceiling and surfaces were planned to be in a certain balance accordingly.

It is one of our priorities that the dark/black ceiling colors, which were in the design approach of the past, are not preferred for this project.

Correct perception of colors by adapting the indirect lighting system to the space and using high color rendering light sources in the general areas of the gym. It also promotes a feeling of spaciousness at the human scale.

It is planned to choose light colors in ceiling color tones and balance the contrast caused by natural light and give a feeling of height/width.

The development envisaged for the cardio area was to continue without changing the industrial type pendants suspended from the high ceiling, which have an important aspect in the current design history, within the architectural concept.

Product development was made to cancel the retrofit LED lamps currently used in these pendant lamps and to adapt a ready-made system with a COB LED module and a cooler inside the pendant casing.

In this way, we had the opportunity to review details such as high CRI and glare control with the updated light source and technology.

Also, another improvement in this design is the general lighting approach, which was preferred in the past. The local highlighting will positively affect the mood of the users by replacing this with a softer ambiance and adding dramatic elements to reduce feelings of stress and fatigue.

By changing this to a more balanced approach, it was aimed to reduce the feelings of stress and fatigue, to prefer more spacious light tones, and to positively affect the mood of the users with dramatic elements and shots in the necessary areas. The decorative wooden cove detail that continues throughout the dressing rooms has been adapted to the design for the lighting principle. By strengthening gross wall and ceiling surfaces, continuity of rhythm and atmosphere is ensured in large areas.