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

AD Middle East

From Rekha to Alia: 8 Times Bollywood Built Beautiful Worlds Around Iconic On-Screen Courtesans, Starting with Umrao Jaan

October 10

In honour of Rekha's birthday, we revisit her hit Umrao Jaan, plus seven other Bollywood blockbusters that put the spotlight on India's opulent architecture, maximalist interiors and vibrant…

Homes / Celebrity Style

Read at AD Middle East ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

From Rekha to Alia: 8 Times Bollywood Built Beautiful Worlds Around Iconic On-Screen Courtesans, Starting with Umrao Jaan

More from AD Middle East on Uchi

This Abu Dhabi Family Home Gives Five Very Different Personalities Common Ground AD Middle East

Let Us Introduce You to Our New Issue Celebrating the Meaning of Home AD Middle East

The Beatles At Home: 24 Photos of Music's Greatest Quartet Beyond the Stage AD Middle East

The Hotel Lobby Bathrooms Where Design Takes Centre Stage AD Middle East

Petit h by Hermès is a Playground for Design Lovers, and it has Just Landed in Dubai AD Middle East

From Ancient Egypt to Hollywood, Palm Tree Decor Never Goes Out of Style AD Middle East