In their second collaboration with lifestyle brand Lost and Found, B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio further builds on the concept of “home” in a design that brings the delights of daily life to a retail backdrop. 

Located in the Renzo Piano-designed art park OōEli in Hangzhou, housing offices, art spaces, retail and design hotels, the store is a quiet reprieve from this “super complex”, reflecting the brand’s philosophy of art and daily life.

Divided into the furniture display area and event space, spatial design revolves around the materiality of the interior with natural textures and artisan craftsmanship on show. Three washed stone boxes scattered around the interior exhibit a tableau of everyday scenes, aiming to showcase the brand' s furniture and homewares selection.

Semi-enclosed with different wall heights, patrons are encouraged to wander in and between the boxes, exploring the various portrayals of daily life. The warm and soft atmosphere is enhanced by the natural and washed texture of the stone walls.

Two stone steps connect the display boxes to a cabin with a pitched roof on one side of the space. Inspired by the tea fields in Hangzhou, the volume was designed to accommodate store events and temporary exhibition projects. Cosy, relaxed and very zen the facade of the cabin also provides a sense of openness with the wood-frame sliding doors visually separating the cabin ever so lightly from the display space.

A dialogue between store and brand develops with Blue Architecture incorporating materials that Lost and Found use in their own furniture into the cabin. Its floors, walls and ceiling feature five different kinds of wood – beech, walnut, white oak, cherry and ash – their natural finishes articulating a sense of warmth and tenderness within the space.

Across the room, a wall of stacked natural timber also draws the eye. Functioning as a display area for small objects, the designers used old reclaimed poplar wood from the production of the furniture factory. An improvisational and experimental process “the unique texture of the aged wood reflects a trace of time and a sense of familiarity,” B.L.U.E. Architecture explained. “Because of the uniqueness of every single piece of the wood, we use them to build small-scale experiments at our studio to test its visual effect before we finally stack and build the wood together with the workers at the construction site in OōEli.”

With the sheer volume of timber used, a unique sensorial experience develops with a natural scent enveloping the store, capturing the customers’ imagination and evoking their senses, which is a must in the age of booming e-commerce platforms.