Mingara One Fitness Centre

With health and wellbeing its central philosophy, Mingara One Fitness Centre, located on the New South Wales Central Coast, wants its members to feel inspired by their impressive surrounds.

Mingara Recreation Club, together with Sandy Strazds of Graphite Architects, had specific ideas about what the centre was to look like, but logistically, the scale of the building made things difficult when it came to implementing the design.

The external façade of the centre is nine metres in height and Graphite Architects wanted to specify striking timber blades that reached the full height of the building, rather than panelling.

“These timber blades were fundamental to our design to offer sunshading to the fully glazed western façade of the building, while still offering filtered views,” said Sandy.

“The product we were looking for wasn’t readily available from a range of companies. We wanted a beautiful, single, solid element that would span both floors, and Hyne supplied the one product that would do all of that for us.”

That product is the Hyne Beam 21 – a laminated beam produced from richly coloured and textured Australian red hardwoods. It is a naturally durable, termite-resistant timber that has an outstanding record for strength and performance.

Another factor that helped make the decision to use Hyne Beam 21 was its appealing looks. With the aim of encouraging members to improve themselves on the inside and out, the aesthetics of the centre needed to match those values. The result is visually very appealing. “It looks great. It’s come up really, really well,” Sandy says of Mingara One, which was completed in October 2008.

Hyne has been in operation since 1882, and the Hyne family’s involvement in the timber industry spans five generations. The combination of these facts makes it hard to look past Hyne for experience and quality products. Sandy agrees wholeheartedly. “Dealing with Hyne was easy and they were very professional.
The logistics of project has surpassed our expectations,” she said.

As the members of Mingara One Fitness Centre work to tone their thighs and improve their wellbeing, they do so in a facility that is beautiful to look at and strong to the core.