Design
Form and function
are the same thing.
The brief
Build something that belongs in a designed home. Then open it up into a complete gym.
Fitness equipment has always looked like fitness equipment. Intimidating, and industrial, but always out of place and kind of sad. Something you tolerate rather than live with.
The Coub brief was to solve that without compromise. Not a scaled-down gym. Not a folding rack hidden behind a curtain. A piece of furniture that opens into a serious training platform. And afterwards closes back into a room that doesn't apologise for itself.
The front panel
The cover is
the gym.
The front panel had to support the sports floor, which was constructed using a sandwich design. Wood was the chosen material. But that created a problem: when Coub opens, the panel folds down onto your floor. Two wood surfaces meeting on a dusty floor will scratch each other.
The solution came from acoustic panel construction - but inverted. Acoustic panels bond wood slats onto felt. I did the opposite: felt bonded onto wood. The felt becomes a sacrificial layer between the panel and the floor, protecting both surfaces and absorbing the impact and vibration of training.
That same felt layer is what gives Coub its look in furniture mode. The slat profile casting fine shadows across the face. A detail that exists because it had to, not because it was designed.
Materials & craft
Birch Multiplex
Baltic birch, void-free core. Chosen for dimensional stability and load performance. Hand-painted twice and finished by hand. Absolutely premium and the gold standard for furniture in its class.
Min 11 Gauge construction steel
The structural frame and all attachment points. Laser-cut, deburred, powder-coated. The steel structure is built to last and will withstand all workouts.
Felt
Bonded directly to the wood. Protects the floor surface when the panel opens, damps vibration during training, and creates the shadow-line slat profile you see in furniture mode.
Dimensions
Closed — furniture
Open — gym
A reduced piece of furniture
where every part earns its place.
Ready?