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

Elle Decoration UK

Celebrate Old Fashioned Month at The Hoxton, Holborn with a very special residency

11.06

Berlin’s Bar Basta brings the party spirit as the hotel chain continues its 20th anniversary celebrations

Read at Elle Decoration UK ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Celebrate Old Fashioned Month at The Hoxton, Holborn with a very special residency

More from Elle Decoration UK on Uchi

4 of the most iconic sofas from Arflex Elle Decoration UK

Dubai Design Week: Our top five highlights Elle Decoration UK

Hosting essentials for a very chic party season Elle Decoration UK

What do you get when you cross a New York townhouse with a little French flair? Elle Decoration UK

Black creativity takes centre stage at the Design Museum Elle Decoration UK

Countdown to Christmas with the best advent calendars Elle Decoration UK