If you’re tossing and turning over which interior design style you should select for your home, this article about styles should help.

It’s time for you to be more educated about the styles that will possibly represent your living space!

Our aim is to uncover the essence behind different cultural design influences by exploring the history of one of Japan’s most famous designers, Kanji Ueki.

Let’s dig in…

THE STORY OF AN INTERIOR DESIGNER WHO GRADUATED WITH AN UNUSUAL DEGREE

Kanji Ueki, born in Tokyo in 1945, did not have a textbook path into interior design. One of an interior designer's first foundations is a university study related to their field, for example, Architecture, Art and Design, or Spatial Design to name a few. However, Kanji’s beginnings were different as he dedicated his time to studying at the Faculty of Commerce (study of finance, accounting, and marketing) in a private research university called Keio. Today, this university has become a major centre for world-leading medical research and education.

So why did the prominent modern Japanese talent choose to study such a subject? The answer is unknown. What we do know is what followed his life next.

In 1968, once Kanji had graduated from Keio University with his degree, he made another unconventional move; he migrated to Italy for film directing. Coincidentally, Italy was the leading design country around this time, which actually played into Kanji’s favour later on. Yet, initially, Kanji wasn’t there for interior design and so spent his time working as an extra in a movie.

During his time as an actor, he bumped into a professor at the Faculty of Architecture in a university there, and through the teacher’s compassion, he was miraculously able to study interior design in Rome for eight years. By then the young designer was skilled enough to design houses and boutiques for famous European fashion designers Valentino and Sonia Rykiel.

Once Kanji returned home, he established a design office, Lazzapo & Associates, where many young designers began their careers just two years later. He then continued to win several awards, including the JCD (Japanese Environmental Commercial Design) and the Industrial Design Excellence Award for constructing the first mock-up design of Apple’s stores that the world sees even up until this day.

UNIQUE IDEAS ABOUT DESIGN AND ITS PROCESS

Kanji’s design process is based on structure. Moreover, he thinks more along the lines of an architect than an interior designer. This is the major difference between him and other designers, even those in Japan.

“It’s more like designing architecture than interior design, responds the interviewer in a brief sit-down with Kanji Ueki. “Exactly,” adds Kanji, “I envision the structure of the space, such as the building, a staircase here, or raising the ceiling.”

Fellow interior design readers will find this an unusual statement compared to what they're used to hearing.

For most audiences in the interior design world, their artists talk about choosing certain objects and colour combinations and how this evokes positive emotions once added to a particular space. The structure or building work typically comes after these choices are made. Kanji’s ideologies on design, on the other hand, completely divide him from the pack.

Note that even reviewers of the Japanese culture find his methods rather difficult to understand.

“From the perspective of the overall image of a designer, Kanji Ueki is the most difficult designer to explain among the many interior designers, stated design critic Jukan Kawatoko.

SOME OF JAPAN’S BEST DESIGN WORKS

Despite the complexity of Kanji’s creative brain, his works tend to always be simplicity touched by the hand of beauty. He crafts countless different designs, all very practical and imposing. Incredibly, he’s had his hand in some of America’s most important interior designs, notably 'The Apple Store.’

In 2001, Kanji finalised a design for Apple's first store ever. It all began with a call from Graphic designer Tamotsu Yagi who desired to have an opinion on the initial mock-up design for the Apple store to which Kanji commented by saying ‘It would be good for a single shop, but not for a multi-store operation’. This led to Kanji being asked to complete the task of drafting up a conceptual design for Steve Jobs Apple stores. After, a month Kanji came back to the United States with drawings and models of what would be the official concept design for the world’s first Apple store.

When studying the early Apple store design photos, it’s not far-fetched to say that only an architectural/interior design mind could conjure up this room. Kanji’s idiosyncratic creative process of seeing structure before decorative peices works perfectly for how unique Apple stores appear today. No other modern technology company offers such a sleek and organised presentation that is borderline blissful to look at.

Another project Kanji’s readers may be familiar with is The Museum of Modern Arts in New York. It is one of the most extensive re-building projects in museum history, costing $858,000,000 dollars. Kanji designed this space with his longtime architect partner Yoshio Taniguchi who took more creative control over the large project. The museum stands at around 650,000 feet with 125,00 square feet of exhibition space.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JAPANESE & EUROPEAN DESIGN

Japanese design culture can be explained in one word: simplicity.

Interior design for them is rooted in minimalist principles, clean lines, and natural materials. From the 8th and 12th centuries, features of the design in these citizens' homes have been very basic. For instance, the majority of houses have two sides where there are no permanent walls, purposely leaving parts of the building exposed. This serves the philosophy that design and nature are interconnected, also known as ‘Shizen.’. Homes also feature sliding doors, floors covered with rice straw mats, a scarce amount of furniture that includes only a cabinet, and a low writing table.

Here’s what Kanji had to say further about Japanese furniture in comparison to the Italian designer's approach. ‘Even for a single chair, the Japanese idea of a chair was completely different from that of the Italians. In the case of Japanese chairs, they are not designed in such a way that people want to sit on them. I think there is a difference in ideas and experience.’

Early Japanese design was moderately influenced by Zen Buddhist architecture or the ‘Tea Masters’ who evoked the principle of grace and minimalism. Such influence could very well explain why furniture has no real presence in their design culture. Furthermore, the design seems to be completely controlled by philosophy. Kanji describes Italian design in comparison to Japanese as being more ‘mature and vibrant.’.

The complete opposite interior design to Japan in these earlier periods is surely Italy. From the 14th century, the Renaissance championed a grandeur and rich style that strongly spread across Europe. A memorable design concept that consisted of this was Baroque architecture. Its methods paint a drastic difference from Japan’s approach. Baroque architecture was all about using contrasting surface textures, vivid colours, and luxurious materials to raise the structure's physical immediacy and evoke sensual delight.

If Italy’s design is also to be described in one word, it would be: ‘grandiose.’.

Common features you may recognise from Italian interior design would be garlands, floors of coloured and patterned marble painting, elaborately cut and framed looking glass, and costly carpets.

CONLUSION

In summary, Japanese interior design has philosophy at the wheel for its creative choices, whereas European designers prefer to be impacted by eye-catching artistic constructions. Although the modern Japanese style has adopted an additional entity nowadays called Japandi, which blends Scandinavian and Japanese art. This mixture, however, can never overshadow the fact that to the Japanese, interior design is simple, but to the Europeans, it is grandeur.