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

est living

Three Design Voices Reflect on Sydney Contemporary 2026

September 17

Amy Henderson , Georgina Jeffries and Sarah Nedovic are three of Australia’s most considered voices across art and design—each bringing a distinct perspective to the way we collect, live with and…

Read at est living ↗

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

Three Design Voices Reflect on Sydney Contemporary 2026

More from est living on Uchi

Designing for Landscape and Light est living

A High-Performing Home in Virginia Water, Secluded by Design est living

The esteemed 10 2026 with Billy Maynard est living

An Artist-Inspired Danish Seaside Home by Norm Architects est living

Bokey Grant Carves a Sanctuary Into the Southern Highlands est living

Crosby Studios Reimagines a Neglected 17th-Century Tuscan Farmhouse est living