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

Livingetc

Coming Up in London — 5 Mood-Boosting Art, Design, Food, and Drink Addresses to Put in Your Diary This November

10.24

Sandwiched between the Fashion Week and Frieze frenzy and the comeback of everything festive, November in London can feel like a bit of a non-month.

Read at Livingetc ↗

More from Livingetc on Uchi

What Is Task Lighting? What the Term Actually Means and Why It's So Important for Your Home, According to Lighting Designers Livingetc

IKEA Just Launched This New Idea That Makes It Easier to Work From Your Sofa — But Is It Good for You? Livingetc

The Secret to This East Village Apartment's Creative Energy? Grit, and Never Feeling "Too Overly Polished or Pristine" Livingetc

How Did the Podcast Studio Become the Bastion of Bad Interior Design? The Designers Behind Jake Shane and Jay Shetty's Studios Are Turning That Around Livingetc

The 13 Best Green Kitchens Defining How to Use This Color in Your Design Right Now Livingetc

Everyone Is Using Calla Lilies to Style Their Tables This Season — But Floristry Aside, Here's How the Coolest Stylists 'Fake' the Look Through Design Livingetc

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest