FIVELEMENTS
Good Vibrations
Can you hear that? Can you hear the music?” Chicco Tatriele is showing me around Fivelements Habitat’s soon-to-open space at Times Square, construction workers still sawing, sanding and installing the finishing touches, and he’s particularly excited that the sound system is finally up and running. “Sound is definitely a big part of the experience,” he says, “and will be a big part of the offerings here.”
The original instrumental music, piped through the ceiling at a specific volume and frequency throughout the entire 15,000-square-foot space, is just one indication that Fivelements Habitat is not your typical spa, fitness or wellness studio. An offshoot of Chicco and his wife Lahra’s popular Balinese retreat, the urban concept is the first of many that the couple hopes will stretch from Hong Kong (there are already two more in the works) to London, New York and other major global cities.
“It’s a home for the growing urban wellness community,” Lahra says. Indeed, everything at Fivelements Habitat is designed for people to feel welcome, to stay a while and to connect with themselves as well as others.
“We’re more than a provider of yoga or fitness,” Chicco says. “For us it’s more about guest services.” In keeping with this philosophy, the staff has been sourced from hotels, members are referred to as “friends of Fivelements”, and service is designed on a hospitality model.
Classes, meanwhile, aim to provide Hong Kong residents with strategies to manage their often-stressful daily lives. These range from yoga and mindfulness sessions to martial arts, Barre training, AntiGravity aerial fitness classes and much, much more. Studios include an innovative soundscape space where guests can meditate to sound and images projected on all four walls, a tatami room for practising tea ceremonies, and smaller spaces for individual or teacher training, another big part of the Fivelements Habitat approach.
“Our rooms are large but not too large,” Lahra says. “Because impact is the most important thing. Fivelements is dedicated to high-impact strategies and services, and not about a mass-mass approach. It’s about community building.”
In addition to the individual and group sacred-arts sessions, Fivelements Habitat will also offer holistic wellness rituals and programmes such as facials and bodywork as well as detoxification and weight management. Its Sakti Elixir Bar and Sakti Lounge will serve nourishing plantbased cuisine made with local, seasonal ingredients and provide a space for guests and the community to gather.
“Our real objective is wellness for humanity,” Chicco says. “It’s a big vision but that’s where it’s going, where it’s shifting. If we want to shift society, we have to do it one at a time, together. We don’t have any other choice.”