This Double Bay Wellness Club Is Putting A Bathhouse, Pilates Studio And Full-Service Restaurant Und
Double Bay is about to get a new kind of members’ club. Sansara is a 1200sqm wellness space opening inside Ruby House, bringing together a studio, gym floor, bathhouse, recovery suite and restaurant in one spot.
“If you haven’t heard of Sansara, this is a luxury wellness club,” Sansara co-founder and managing director Luke Champion says. “It’s a space for people to come together and connect in so many different ways, whether that be through movement, through food, through community, through arts and culture.”
Champion started the club with co-founders Christian Jones and Rory Warnock, and the concept has been in the works since 2020. The name comes from the Sanskrit for “flow of life”, and the whole space is designed around that idea of cycles.
Move, bathe, train, rest
The Studio runs mat pilates, strength pilates, yoga, yin yoga, meditation, recovery breathwork and sound experiences. Warnock says breathwork will be a big part of the club, with classes in the studio and private sessions in the recovery suite using Apple AirPods Max.
The bathhouse is built around heat and cold, with a communal sauna, a female sauna, a magnesium bath, a cold plunge, an ice bucket and a magnesium scrub. Over on the gym floor, you’ll find Technogym machines, free weights, cardio equipment and personal training, all under plenty of natural light.
The recovery suite is where things get a little more high-tech. Think IV drips, oxygen and hydrogen therapy, red light infrared panels, Therabody JetBoots and SmartGoggles.
Dinner, and a place to work
Then there's Ruby’s, the club’s restaurant run by Bambini Group, the team behind Bambini Trust. Coffee starts from 6am, followed by breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week.
Expect a crab crumpet and cheddar toastie in the morning, then small plates like zucchini flowers, arancini, polenta chips, charcuterie and oysters in the afternoon. For dinner, there's steak frites, house-made pastas, a Moreton Bay bug pasta and slow-roasted chicken, which you can also grab as a takeaway after your workout.
The founders are clear it’s not a health food menu. “Eating well is not specifically health food,” Champion says. “It’s nourishing good food that you can sit around and enjoy.”
There’s also a lounge, so you can train, hit the bathhouse, grab a coffee and get some work done without leaving the building.
Community and events
Membership is by application, though the team says it’s not about being exclusive. They’re after a mix of people, “from corporates to creatives and everyone in between”.
Members get access to the studio classes, gym floor and bathhouse, plus a guest pass for up to two visits a month. The club is cash-free, with extras like personal training and recovery treatments added to your membership account.
There will also be an events program which will run from founder breakfasts and investor dinners to wine tastings, live music and artist-in-residence programs.
Sansara is opening soon at Ruby House in Double Bay. Find out more here.