A Zero-Gravity Frame Anchors KUKA|JOY's Hangzhou Showroom

At the centre of the secondary entrance to the KUKA|JOY showroom in Hangzhou stands an installation built from a sofa's skeleton. Named the Gravitational Nest by its designer, STILL YOUNG, it renders K-TRON Space Z in a transparent, sculptural form. According to the studio, Space Z is KUKA's in-house zero-gravity steel frame and one of four patented sofa technologies in its range.

STILL YOUNG, founded in Shanghai in 2007 with offices in Guangzhou and Wuhan, says its practice centres on commercial spaces for retail, dining, fashion and entertainment brands. The showroom covers 584.8 sq m inside Hangzhou Chengbei MixC and was completed on 15 March 2026. It presents the KUKA|JOY series, which STILL YOUNG describes as the flagship smart furniture collection within KUKA's integrated home solutions system. The studio set out to show how the series' features, among them zero-gravity support, wall-independent placement and high legs, translate into how people sit, pause and move through a room.

Two Entrances, Two Ways In

The facade sets a restrained tone. STILL YOUNG reworked KUKA's brand motif into a pattern that disperses gradually, and paired metallic surfaces with luminous panels to add depth at the entrance.

Visitors who come through the main entrance reach a new-product area laid out in modules, followed by a signature-product zone with open displays of best sellers. The sequence gives a first read of the collection before the scenario zones begin. The secondary entrance works differently. Single chairs sit loosely around the Gravitational Nest, which turns the arrival into a shared place to linger.

Scenarios Set by Material and Scale

The studio organised the floor around different kinds of households: those that prize shared family time and order, those that weigh aesthetics and entertaining, and those that value technology-led convenience. Each receives its own treatment of material, scale and layout.

The rest and relaxation zone uses warm tones and refined finishes to build a cocoon-like mood. The family gathering area relies on soft whites, warm greys and natural textures. The entertainment and leisure zone stages a dining and living room for guests, in a restrained palette that the studio links to Italian-inspired minimalism. The home working zone shifts to black, white, grey and natural wood, with digital interfaces and linear geometry.

Across these settings, STILL YOUNG says the KUKA|JOY pieces respond to sitting, resting, film watching and working through adjustable structures that support the head and neck, the lumbar region and the legs.

Showing What Sits Inside

The technology display pairs an illuminated stretch ceiling with linear stainless-steel frames. A wooden island counter at its centre breaks up the route. Foam, steel frame and leather are shown taken apart, so visitors can see the components behind a finished sofa. The VIP service area follows the logic of a living and dining room, with an open plan in place of a conventional service counter.

A Retail Problem, Answered With Structure

The project addresses a familiar retail difficulty. Features such as zero-gravity support or wall-independent placement show up in how a body sits and how a room is arranged, and a static display struggles to convey either. STILL YOUNG puts the structural frame at the centre of the plan and arranges the remaining zones by use. For designers working on product-led retail, it is a case of giving an engineered component the main position and leaving finishes to carry the mood in each zone.

Details of the frame's engineering and patents come from the studio's project notes, so they are reported here as the studio states them. Whether an exposed frame reads as clearly to a shopper as it does on a plan is a question the floor itself will answer.

Project: KUKA|JOY Living & Dining Showroom (Hangzhou Chengbei MixC)

Design team: STILL YOUNG

Area: 584.8 sq m

Completion: 15 March 2026

Photos: Yunnnnno Studio, courtesy of STILL YOUNG