Outside, it is...raining. Hard. Not impossible to walk through, but the kind of weather where you'd get drenched within a couple of minutes unless you had the right clothes. They are obviously in a city, and a major one at that; although Cormond is built on the salt-flats, overpopulation has meant that people build up, and given one side of the street has no buildings, there is a wide view of the rest of the city.
The buildings themselves are built in a style that is both functional and stark at the same time as being organic - and very, very science-fiction looking. The science-fiction feel isn't helped by the airspeeders and the aliens mixed in with the humans.
"The port is just at the other end of the street," Esfir explains as they stand under the eaves.