HollandGreen Designs Tranquil Pilates Studio in the Grounds of Rosewood Manor

Award-winning multidisciplinary Design Practice HollandGreen has completed a bespoke Pilates studio within the grounds of Rosewood Manor in the Cotswolds. The new building provides a serene setting for both the owner’s personal practice and growing business. Naturally, HollandGreen also designed the studio to complement the historic architecture of the main house, which is built from traditional Cotswolds stone, and to sit lightly in its rural Oxfordshire setting.

The space is flooded with light and views of the surrounding landscape. An overhanging roof and floor-to-ceiling glass doors allow for indoor-outdoor Pilates practice.

HollandGreen is an award-winning, multidisciplinary Design Practice founded in 2010. With a unique blend of expertise in architecture, interior design and landscape design, coupled with a turn-key service approach, the practice delivers exceptional results tailored to its clients’ vision and lifestyle.

A space shaped by light and landscape

Connection to the outdoors was at the heart of client’s brief. To achieve this, HollandGreen designed two walls of full-height glazing alongside high-level windows, ensuring daylight floods the space throughout the day. The studio faces west to capture the soft evening light, while the main glazed wall opens to a terrace via large sliding doors. With a generous roof overhang providing shading, the terrace creates the opportunity for seamless indoor-outdoor Pilates practice. A sculptural rain chain channels water during rainfall, doubling as a gentle water feature.

Calm and neutral, the interior also features a wall of Cotswolds stone to connect with its surroundings.

A calming, flexible interior

Inside, the studio was designed to evoke calm through natural textures and a neutral palette. Engineered oak flooring, lime-rendered walls and a feature wall in Cotswolds stone provide a warm yet minimal backdrop (below). The stone wall also acts as a striking setting for the owner’s online classes and video content.

The open-plan space is flexible enough to accommodate different configurations of Pilates equipment, currently housing reformer machines. A bespoke entrance hall with built-in joinery ensures shoes, coats and equipment are neatly stored away, leaving the main studio uncluttered.

The studio also includes a spa-style bathroom finished in polished concrete with a skylight above the shower, complemented by Samuel Heath fittings in bronze (right).

Rooted in nature

Surrounded by long grasses and overlooking a neighbouring paddock, the studio is designed as much a retreat as a workplace. Its harmonious connection with the landscape supports the Pilates philosophy of promoting wellbeing through movement, mindfulness and connection to the natural world.

The studio is surrounded by greenery and, thanks to its natural materials, sits lightly in the landscape.

James Hurst, Associate Director Architecture (Design), HollandGreen:

“This studio has given our client the perfect space to nurture both her own practice and that of her clients. It was our aim to create a seamless connection between inside and out, to help each practice feel restorative and the resulting studio design is calming yet uplifting. Our client is delighted with the space and has affirmed that she finds the studio both personal and inspiring, which is obviously wonderful for us to hear.”