Design of a boxing court for the Temple Noble Art club.
Materials>
solid ipe parquet, projected plaster wall crepis, diorite stone, walnut veneer wall coverings, mirror, steel bowl lighting.
Floor area: 700 sqm
Client: Temple Noble Art
Design: ciguë
© photo: Maris Mezulis
The Temple | Noble Art Boxing Club stages decisive and improbable encounters between boxing coaches from gritty local neighbourhood boxing halls and an exacting community of members, taking place somewhere between the heights of pugnacity and the secret underbelly of the capital. To stage these encounters, ciguë has neutralised the showy ostentation expected from an exclusive sports club, instead highlighting the authenticity of the venue, people and instant.
It’s Back to the Future at Temple | Motte-Piquet Grenelle, where it’s all about brutalism versus 70’s lobby chic. The somewhat chilly grandiloquence of this basement space under a business hotel is neutralised by the warm minimalism of ciguë’s intervention: an elegant staircase leads to a space with walnut panelling and contrasting sprayed plaster rendering, highlighting the high ceilings and a boxing ring of Olympic dimensions (7×7). The ring stands proudly under 49 hanging bowl lights inspired by Marcel Breuer’s MET. A long green leather banquette stretches out beside the long, narrow bar, and there’s ever-so-slightly retro cream-and-charcoal checkerboard tiling in the changing rooms.