Text description provided by the architects
UFO outside is a specialist urban-outdoor lifestyle store in Binjiang, Hangzhou, born from an ambitious year-long collaboration among three friends who wanted to bring the "Urban Outdoor" movement into everyday life. The property comprises a two-storey building, a freestanding glass pavilion and a 750-square-metre lawn. The original structure was unremarkable, so the design, by Hangzhou Guantang Interior Design, treats the building as a spacecraft awaiting liftoff: a white outer shell is wrapped around the north and west elevations of the second floor, cantilevered out from the existing eaves and punctuated by irregular windows. Plants spill out of these openings, turning a plain facade into a lush, layered organism. Inside, two giant circular light-wells are punched through the building from ground floor to roof, one containing a spiral staircase in stainless steel and fair-faced concrete that evokes the inside of a space capsule, the other framing a mature tree trunk transplanted through both levels, a metaphor for the exploration of life. Where the exterior is wrapped, the interior is deliberately stripped back to a bare, unfinished state: exposed concrete, rough-textured render, nostalgic terrazzo floors and cement-coloured ground-floor walls. The white second-floor shell then appears to hover over the raw volume below. The separate glass pavilion, named the "Nomadic Space," retains old brick walls behind a transparent box and hosts pop-up releases, collaborations, exhibitions and outdoor-lifestyle events. The store's signature green was created by graphic designer Mei Shuzhi of 702 Design, paired with bright yellow to signal outdoor energy and fashion. The ground floor sells outdoor gear from brands such as Snow Peak, Heimplanet, Nordisk and Tentipi alongside a bar and coffee counter; the second floor is a curated fashion buy-shop carrying And Wander, DAIWA PIER39, Stone Island, Gramicci, Nanamica and others. Completed in November 2022, the 1,500-square-metre store uses terrazzo, metal panels, weathered wood, random-grain stainless steel and exposed concrete.