Aeterna Interiors is a Kyoto studio founded in 2016. Every interior starts as a graphite study — proportion, light and circulation resolved on paper long before a wall moves — and is then built slowly with quarries and joineries that still finish by hand.
Aeterna began in a single tatami room above a weaver's workshop, with one drafting table and a standing rule: no room leaves the studio unless it can be lived in for a decade. Every interior starts as a graphite study — proportion, light and circulation resolved on paper long before a wall moves.
We work with quarries and joineries that still finish by hand, and with makers who sign the underside of the piece. The result is a home built slowly and repaired gladly — an interior rather than a scheme.
“We are not decorating for a season. We are shaping rooms for the person who will still live in them.”
The studio holds six full residences a year so that each can be carried by one designer from first survey to final placement. Single-room and consultation engagements run alongside, never more than two at a time.
From a single tatami room to six residences a year — the milestones that hold the studio's method.
Aeterna begins above a weaver's workshop in Nishijin, with one drafting table and the standing rule that still holds the studio.
The Higashiyama house — travertine, lime plaster and oak — establishes the studio's drawn-first, built-slowly method.
Mio joins as lead of joinery and detail. The studio begins issuing every cabinet and hearth at 1:20 from its own drawings.
Aeterna settles at six full residences a year, held by one designer each, with single-room and consultation engagements alongside.
A small team of nine, led by three. Every commission is carried by one designer from start to finish.
Trained in Kyoto and Copenhagen, Rei founded Aeterna in 2016 on a single rule: no room leaves the studio unless it can be lived in for a decade. She holds every full residence from first survey to final placement.
Mio issues every 1:20 joinery drawing from the studio and works with the joiners who make them. A furniture maker before she was a designer, she signs the underside of every piece she draws.
Sora travels to the quarries, forests and ateliers the studio draws from — judging stone, plaster and timber under light in the room itself. He keeps the material library to a single wall.
Six residences a year, each held by one designer. Tell us about the house.