A room is a decision about how you want to be tired at the end of the day.

I live in forty-eight square metres in Tokyo with one good chair and far too many bowls, so I have had to mean that. I trained as an architect and left to write, which my teachers took badly. Uchi (内) means inside, and it means home: the room you come back to. The palette comes after the tiredness. So does the name on the lamp.

This is where I keep what the world's rooms are doing. Around seventy sources, read in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian, French and English: an apartment in Seoul, a house outside Taipei, a Copenhagen showroom seen from here rather than from Denmark. East first, because east is where I am sitting.

Each story is a headline, an excerpt of a few lines, one photograph and a link to whoever did the work. We never reprint the piece, and the photograph belongs to the person who took it. When a room was written up in Korean or Italian it stays in Korean or Italian here; the link takes you to the writer's own words.

I am not trying to be complete. I am trying to notice.

— Mio Tachibana, Tokyo

← Uchi Archive

Architectural Digest

11 Movies Designers Watch—and Rewatch—for a Rush of Inspiration

October 6

Need a jolt of design adrenaline? Add these gorgeous films to your streaming queue

Celebrity Style / Set Design

Read at Architectural Digest ↗

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

11 Movies Designers Watch—and Rewatch—for a Rush of Inspiration

More from Architectural Digest on Uchi

In This Midcentury Home the Terrazzo Floor Creates a Color Palette That Explores Femininity, Nature, and Softness Architectural Digest

19 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2026, Tested in Real Homes Architectural Digest

To Save a 1903 Home, This Architect Employed an Out-There Solution: A House Within a House Architectural Digest

Charlton Heston at Home: 10 Photos of the Star Through the Decades, From a Tiny NYC Pad to a Rambling California Paradise Architectural Digest

9 Best Hotel Pillows for Bringing Five-Star Comfort Home (2026) Architectural Digest

13 Best Hotels in London for Plenty of English Refinement (2026) Architectural Digest