Future Species Habitat

As robots move beyond the laboratory and into the physical world, the spaces they inhabit need to become more than showcases for technological achievement.

As UNITREE’s first intelligent experience store worldwide, the space serves as a key physical touchpoint between the brand and the public. It is a setting for robotic demonstrations, performances, and public interaction, while also accommodating technology education, industry engagement, and retail.

For a robotics brand that has long built public recognition through its technology and products, its first physical experience space marks an important translation of brand identity from digital media into a tangible environment. The technical capabilities and kinetic characteristics of robots, as well as the evolving relationship between humans and robots, all need to find a more direct spatial expression.

Beyond providing a setting for product display, the space establishes a distinct spatial language for UNITREE—one through which visitors can develop a more complete and tangible understanding of the brand as they enter, observe, and interact.

The starting point of the design, therefore, was not simply to create a futuristic technology space, but to ask a more fundamental question: When a robotics brand enters the physical world, what kind of identity should it embody? And within what kind of environment should humans and robots encounter one another?

Chapter 1 · Futuristic × Vitality

Futurism is an inherent visual language of the UNITREE brand. Silver-toned metals, precision structures, and a uniform lighting environment collectively establish the spatial atmosphere.

For UNITREE, however, technology is never static. Whether quadruped or humanoid, its robots are distinguished by their biomimetic movement—mechanical structures form the body, algorithms drive behavior, and sensing systems continuously perceive their surroundings, allowing them to respond to the physical world through walking, running, jumping, and interaction.

We therefore position UNITREE’s spatial identity between Futurism and Vitality. Futurism defines the clear and rational framework of the space, while Vitality is introduced through more organic forms, the warmth and tactility of wood, and the continuous movement and interaction of the robots themselves.

Together, these elements shift the spatial expression of futurism and vitality beyond a static technological setting, transforming it into an active future scenario—one that perceives, interacts, and exerts a tangible presence in the physical world.

The experience store becomes a physical interface where the digital and physical worlds converge—both a space for imagining the future of technology and a place where digital intelligence enters everyday life in ways that can be seen, sensed, and interacted with.

Chapter 2 · A Slice of the Future

We imagine a scenario in which robots are no longer simply mechanical tools, but intelligent “future species” in continuous evolution. With this shift, the conventional model of a technology showroom begins to change. Rather than creating a display case for robots, we envision a habitat—an imagined environment for these future species.

The space becomes a continuously operating technological environment. Robots are displayed here, but also walk, move, perceive, and respond within it, while visitors enter and share the same physical territory with them.

Accordingly, approximately 60% of the space is dedicated to the central arena, dynamic demonstrations, and interactive experiences. Instead of filling the space with conventional retail displays, a large open area is deliberately preserved for walking, running, martial arts demonstrations, and other complex robotic movements.

The visitor’s gaze follows the robots as they move through the space, making movement itself an essential part of the spatial experience. Technology is revealed not through an abundance of screens and information, but progressively through observing, approaching, interacting, and understanding.

The space is conceived as a slice of the future—an everyday scene from a world where humans and robots already coexist, brought forward into the present. Entering it means momentarily stepping into that future reality.

Chapter 3 · Technology × Organic

Drawing from the construction of robots, we developed a material and formal language for the space. Metal represents precision and technological structure, while wood introduces tactility, warmth, and vitality. Together, they reflect the brand’s balance between futurism and vitality.

The site’s only structural column is transformed into a symbolic robot capsule. Rounded metal wraps around a warm wooden core, placing the robot within a vessel-like structure that suggests “birth”—a moment when digital intelligence acquires a body and the machine begins to take on lifelike qualities.

This relationship extends to the ceiling, where luminous membrane panels create a continuous field of light, rhythmically divided by wooden elements. The lighting recedes into the architecture, allowing the robots’ forms and movements to take visual focus.

Illuminated platforms and flexible shelving form an adaptable display system, while black fluted glass adds depth and contrast for smaller components.

Along the façade, large curved glass panels extend the interior toward the city, placing hero robots at the transparent boundary between the store and the street.

Client
Unitree

Location
in88, Wangfujing, Beijing

Area
100 m²

Completion Date
2026.06

Design Firm
E Studio

Lead Designer
Fan, Junjian
Zhou, Xuanzhuo

Design Team
Hu, Yulong
Huang, Chenxi
Liu, Shuqi
Fang, Guiyun
Deng, Changyi
Zhou, Jing
Liu, Ying

Photographer
WM Studio