蹊径设计 / ELSE 由徐之非和张子墨于2023年创立，是一间以建筑思考为核心、工作于多种尺度与媒介之间的设计事务所。事务所的实践涵盖新建建筑、既有建筑改造、空间装置、室内设计、家具设计、公共空间与城市设计等领域。事务所团队具有国际化教育与实践背景，并在中国和欧洲均有建成作品。

“蹊径”意味着在既定路径之外，寻找另一种进入场地与回应问题的方式。英文名 ELSE 既指向 something else，也包含 somewhere else 与 somebody else：它既是一种对常规答案的偏离，也来自事务所在跨地域工作中形成的观察方式。这种视角使事务所始终与既有类型、风格和行业惯性保持距离，并在陌生与熟悉之间，发掘尚未被充分展开的设计潜力。

蹊径设计的工作通常从一个清晰的空间概念出发，并通过对场地条件、材料行为、结构逻辑、气候环境与使用方式的细读，将分散的现实条件转化为可被感知的空间经验。成立以来，事务所持续参与国内外建筑与设计竞赛，并多次获胜。事务所建成作品曾发表于 Domus、Arquitectura Viva、Architect’s Journal 等建筑刊物，并被 Monocle、ArchDaily、Divisare 等国内外建筑与设计媒体报道。事务所成立当年，被谷德与有方评选为年度年轻事务所。

ELSE was founded by Zhifei Xu and Zimo Zhang in 2023. It is a design practice grounded in architectural thinking and operating across multiple scales and media. The studio’s work spans new buildings, adaptive reuse, spatial installations, interiors, furniture, public space, and urban design. Its founding team has educational and professional backgrounds across China, the United States, and Europe, and has completed built works in both China and Europe.

The Chinese name 蹊径 suggests the search for an alternative path: another way of entering a site and responding to a problem. The English name ELSE points to something else, while also implying somewhere else and somebody else: a departure from conventional answers, shaped by a way of seeing formed through cross-regional practice. This perspective allows the studio to maintain a distance from established types, styles, and professional inertia, and to uncover design potentials within a site that have not yet been fully developed.

ELSE’s work usually begins with a clear spatial concept. Through a close reading of site conditions, material behavior, structural logic, climate, and patterns of use, the studio transforms dispersed realities into perceptible spatial experiences. This approach may take the form of a building, an installation, an interior, or a piece of furniture, and may also extend into strategies for public space or the urban scale. Since its founding, the studio has actively participated in architectural, public space, and installation competitions in China and abroad, winning multiple competitions. Its built works have been published in architectural journals including Domus, Arquitectura Viva, and Architect’s Journal, and featured by international and Chinese architecture and design media such as Monocle, ArchDaily, and Divisare. In the year of its founding, ELSE was named Young Practice of the Year by gooood and Position.