Founded 10 years ago, SKY TING is more than a yoga studio. It’s a retreat (they offer yoga-focused trips to Costa Rica); a digital platform (to livestream classes and access tutorials on demand); and a spa (with complimentary shots of chlorophyll). Their new space in New York now reflects the yoga platform’s inspirations in art and design. Bench Architecture elevated the standard blank box yoga studio, balancing a restrained hand with a material richness. The result is a serene environment that supports the wellness culture of SKY TING.

The new space is organized around a central lobby, which grants access to the various rooms and functions of SKY TING. The lobby is flanked by two yoga studios, one overlooking Lafayette street and the other looking west toward Crosby street. In between, the lobby houses bathrooms which lie adjacent to the wellness area, where the spa lounge, saunas, and treatment rooms are housed. Placing all the programmatic functions around this rectangular core makes the spatial circulation flow and the navigation intuitive.

Bench Architecture modeled the space after SKY TING’s own brand aesthetics and needs. Part of the brief required a tranquil atmosphere to better tap into the mind and body, particularly in the yoga studios. To that end, the design team kept the distractions and interventions to a minimum, separating acoustics for each studio. White clads the yoga rooms, creating a calm blanket that accentuates the industrial nature of the space like its columns, brick walls, and scalloped ceiling. The designers kept existing elements of the building when possible.

While lined with windows, the studios are lightened further with glass block, directing light into the window-less lobby. It’s here where the architects were able to bring in the other half of the brief: designing a calm yet exciting space. The lobby integrates more color and materials, beginning with the warm brown carpet that grounds the core. It’s anchored by a stainless steel reception desk for a sleek edge and an earth-toned banquette.

For the bathrooms, the architects—who also acted as the construction manager of the project in a modified design-build role—executed the same concept in slightly different ways. One bathroom is finished in custom shoji screens framed in hinoki and softly backlit. The other bathroom takes a more minimal approach, featuring white walls, a wood-clad light fixture, and a marble counter.

If the lobby is grounded, the adjacent spa lounge is its airer cousin. Mirrors clad the walls as it integrates niches with small beds for relaxation. The area grants access to the wood-clad infrared sauna and a cold plunge. Both are divvied by more glass block, connecting the design of yoga studies to the spa rooms.

SKY TING’s series of spaces unravel in contemporary concepts of calm, each its own variation on a theme. But they ultimately come together to feel well-rounded, just like the studio’s teachings.