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. More than a hundred sources, read in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese 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

Archiproducts

15 lamps that made design history are finally on sale this Black Friday

11.08

Table lamps, chandeliers, sconces, floor lamps: the best home lighting deals online for the whole month 11/08/2026 - Black Friday 2026 lighting deals on Archiproducts bring together a curated…

Lighting

Read at Archiproducts ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

15 lamps that made design history are finally on sale this Black Friday

Related

20 Plug-In and Rechargeable Kitchen Sconces That Add Instant Character and Warmth – No Rewiring Required Homes & Gardens

Japan照明を落とすとLEDが光る。インテリア映えする大人のレーザーダーツ roomie

3D printed ruffled collars top checkerboard lamps, vases, and candle holders in ondu wonderland Designboom

Low-level Lighting Is the Unsung Hero of a Layered Scheme That Designers Wish We'd All Use Much More Than We Do Livingetc

The 24 Very Best Table Lamps That Will Make Rooms Beautiful and Dark Days Brighter Right Now Livingetc

JapanDILLY DALLY / axonometric Tecture