Designed by ON design partners, FIKA is a home that converts into a weekend shop selling scandinavian collectibles. Separated by a full-height white shelving unit, the shop and the home merge into a single space creating a unique and intimate shopping experience…

Hiroshima based UID Architects studio was founded in 2003 by Keisuke Maeda. Clearly an advocate of designing in section and 3D, every project pushes the boundaries of solid and void, inside and outside, public and private. I think this is what happens when architecture and landscape architecture make babies…

Humble materials considered beautifully, intricate patterns on the shopfront, pristine joinery pieces that double up as room dividers – these are just some of the reasons I was instantly drawn to the IRO hair salon in Osaka, Japan. Designed by Reiichi Ikeda in collaboration with graphic designer Yuma Harada of UMA/design farm, this deceivingly simple and elegant interior is the epitome of Japanese design – where everything is perfectly balanced, restrained, elegant, honest and “just so”…

Located in the suburbs of Hiroshima, House in Fukawa is a grown up version of “treehouse” designed by Suppose Design Office for a young family of four. The house occupies a small block and managing to squeeze in three bedroom boxes which cascade and suspend from the central “tree trunk” – a central staircase. The boxes are clad in plywood and their unusual placement carves the space in unusual configurations, creating a series of spaces in between used for eating, reading, relaxing and living. It is almost impossible to judge the scale of this house, to separate the bridges from rooms, indoor from outdoor space…

I am completely smitten by Hiroko Nakajima’s graduate collection titled “Welcome Home” in which she used interior furnishings, reminiscent of her childhood room, to create these sculptural pieces of clothing…