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

The Design Story Behind PINCH's Soft, Sculptural Anders Pendant Light That Took 5 Years to Perfect

October 11

There are a few pieces that crop up so often in Livingetc -style homes that they signal a shared design sensibility.

Lighting

Read at Livingetc ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

The Design Story Behind PINCH's Soft, Sculptural Anders Pendant Light That Took 5 Years to Perfect

Related

The best table lamps to light up your bedside & beyond Homes to Love

Korea보랏빛 미로 속으로 Maison Korea

Interior Designers Actually Want Tables That Are a Little Rough Around the Edges — Why This Handcrafted Trend Is Officially a 'Thing' Livingetc

Don't Put Your Desk Against the Wall — This 'Bean Desk' Is How the Design Crowd Is Making the Most of Their Small-ish Spaces Livingetc

Designer Emily Pun Helped a Color-Shy Couple Step Out of Their Neutral Comfort Zone in This Character-Filled London Terraced Home Livingetc

An Insider Guide to Bogotá — Where to Go, Stay, Eat, and Shop According to the City-Enamored Founder of Local Homeware Brand CasaLatina Livingetc