Denim Sculptural Gym: How Sutura Transforms Workout Equipment in Mexico City

Denim Becomes Architecture in Sutura’s Sculptural Gym

In Mexico City, Sutura — a collaboration between studios Sulkin Askenazi and Alterego — reimagines what a gym can be. Instead of approaching workout equipment as isolated objects, the team applies a single-material strategy that transforms the entire space into a cohesive sculptural installation - an denim sculptural gym.

Their chosen medium? Denim, stretched and applied across machines, pads, columns, and architectural surfaces. The result is a gym that feels less like an interior for exercise and more like a monochromatic, indigo-blue landscape.

All images © Ricardo de la Concha.

Monochrome Textiles Reshape Spatial Perception

The project draws inspiration from artists and designers who use color and material to manipulate perception — including James Turrell, Harry Nuriev, and Glenn Martens.

By covering the gym in a continuous denim skin, the designers create a unified visual field where:

• light softens edges and deepens shadows,

• silhouettes become sharply defined,

• machines blend into architectural volume,

• and movement becomes part of the composition.

This treatment elevates the space into a hybrid environment: functional like a gym, atmospheric like an installation.

A Sculptural Landscape Where Movement and Space Interact

In this denim-wrapped world, exercise becomes choreography.Each repetition, stretch, and shift of weight occurs against a textile backdrop that emphasizes form and motion.

The seamless material strategy dissolves the distinction between:

• equipment and architecture,

• body and environment,

• utility and visual expression.

Sutura – Design House 2025 repositions the gym typology as a unified architectural statement, where material consistency and sculptural treatment frame daily activity as a designed experience.

Written by Otávio Santiago, a designer crafting visual systems that move between the tactile and the digital. His work combines motion, branding, and 3D exploration with a poetic sense of structure.