Tianmuli / OōEli (天目里): Renzo Piano's Campus of Bookshops and Art
Mentioned in 1 local noteWalk-in · campus free
When Hangzhou's design crowd needs a venue, this is the default — the market in our notes chose it for a reason. Tianmuli (international name OōEli) is a seventeen-building campus designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, opened in 2020 as the headquarters of fashion group JNBY, with shops, galleries and studios arranged around a vast open courtyard.
Its two anchors travel well in any language: Tsutaya Books' first store in mainland China — two floors of books, stationery and design objects — and BY ART MATTERS, the contemporary art museum whose inaugural show was curated by Francesco Bonami.
The essentials
| What | A 17-building Renzo Piano campus — bookstore, galleries, cafes, design retail around one courtyard |
|---|---|
| Where | 398 Tianmushan Road, Xihu District 西湖区天目山路398号 |
| Metro | Line 3 to Gudun Road 古墩路, about 230 m via the pedestrian underpass |
| Cost | Campus free; BY ART MATTERS exhibitions ticketed |
| Hours | Open-air campus; shops (incl. Tsutaya) roughly 10:00–22:00 |
| Booking | None for the campus; big markets and popular exhibitions sometimes ticket separately |
Why locals rate it
Because it's the city's one world-class piece of contemporary architecture you can simply hang out in. Piano's buildings hold a sharp grey edge around a courtyard that the campus programs constantly — design markets, coffee festivals, seasonal installations — so there's usually something happening between the bookstore and the museum. The market note that brought us here treated the venue as half the draw: 200 stalls under those facades beat 200 stalls anywhere else.
Tsutaya rewards a slow hour even if you read no Chinese — the design-object floors and the stationery hall are the point. Check what's on at BY ART MATTERS before you go; its shows run museum-grade.
- Weekend markets sometimes ticket the courtyard (¥30–50 with a gift bag is typical) while the shops stay free — check the campus's event calendar, or ask Kora what's on your dates.
- The apple-green rooftop garden on the museum side is open to walk and mostly empty — the campus's quietest photo spot.
- Pair it with an evening on Tianmushan Road: the surrounding blocks are the city's design-studio belt, dense with good small restaurants that never see tourists.
Around it
It's a 15-minute taxi from the lake's north shore — locals do Baoshi Hill for sunrise, breakfast on Beishan Street, then Tianmuli when the shops open. The full ranked list is on the Hangzhou local map.
First time in China? Kora handles the parts that don't survive translation — payments, pins, menus, and a plan B when it rains.
Chat with Kora Arrival Pack — from $19.90