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

Elle Decoration UK

The design lovers’ guide to Athens

September 23

This is a city with a growing creative scene, so we asked insiders for their favourite hotels, galleries and more

Read at Elle Decoration UK ↗

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

The design lovers’ guide to Athens

More from Elle Decoration UK on Uchi

Designer Tom Raffield shares the treasured object that reminds him of adventures in craft Elle Decoration UK

Bored of your bathroom? These are the four big design trends to know about Elle Decoration UK

See inside this magical reinvention of a traditional Victorian house in west London Elle Decoration UK

This is how fashion insiders design their homes Elle Decoration UK

This colourful home outside Lisbon is a joyful reflection of its owner’s creative spirit Elle Decoration UK

Update your desk: 10 stylish stationery buys Elle Decoration UK