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

Architectural Digest

Yoshitomo Nara Is Gen Z’s Favorite Artist—Even if They Don’t Know His Name

11.04

His paintings sell for millions at auction, but his most important fans might be the ones displaying his posters, ashtrays, lamps, and snow globes.

Culture + Lifestyle Culture + Lifestyle / Art + Auctions

Read at Architectural Digest ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Yoshitomo Nara Is Gen Z’s Favorite Artist—Even if They Don’t Know His Name

More from Architectural Digest on Uchi

Billy Joel at Home: 10 Photos of the Piano Man Through the Decades Architectural Digest

18 Best Leather Sofas of 2026: Couches That Are Editor-Approved Architectural Digest

7 Pendant Lights to Perfect Your Overhead Lighting Scheme (2026) Architectural Digest

This DC Designer’s Nearly 200-Year-Old Virginia Farmhouse Flourishes With Detail and History Architectural Digest

Muhammad Ali at Home: 10 Photos of the Heavyweight Champion’s Life Outside the Ring Architectural Digest

This 322-Square-Foot Apartment Gives Classic Style a Contemporary Update Architectural Digest