Ryo Kaneko, a Tokyo-based ceramicist, has created a unique living space that doubles as a home and a workshop, where he can move seamlessly between making, living, and everyday rhythms. With a background in fashion and a love of sewing, Ryo keeps his hands busy with various DIY projects, often made specifically for his home.
Living Small, Living Well
Over the past three years, Ryo has made all of his furniture, continually testing and tweaking the setup to ensure the space works for him. Instead of chasing a “perfect” interior, he’s created a home that feels personal, practical, and comfortably lived-in.
Ryo’s apartment is designed in layers, with softened light, textured surfaces, and storage built around the things he owns and loves. When something no longer feels fit for purpose, it gets cut down, rebuilt, or repurposed, resulting in a space that shifts seamlessly between living, working, making, and resetting.
A Home of Many Layers
The entry to Ryo’s apartment tells you all you need to know about how he lives. It’s small, features ceramics, and every nook is utilized. Ryo even made a compact seat for his shoes, which also serves as storage underneath. Above the seat, he’s turned his pottery glaze samples into artwork.
Ryo has a few tricks for making the most of his rental space, including hanging sheer curtains to add length and balance privacy with diffused sunlight. He’s also custom-built a shelf to fit a large stack of storage containers, and above the shelf, a paper fish looks over the sofa, which was remodelled from a former shelving unit.
Ryo’s desk is focused in a corner, deliberately narrow to sit snug in the space. Behind the desk is a Donald Judd-inspired bookshelf, made with custom-ordered pre-cut pieces of Shina lumber core wood. Ryo’s version was made with the “fun part” of putting it together.
A Space for Creativity
Ryo’s hard-working dining table is a multipurpose workstation used for sewing and product photography. The thin ledge under the table holds his diary and notebook, and the adjacent renter-friendly wall provides another narrow gap for storage. When there’s a blank wall, Ryo needs to decorate, resulting in a display pillar, a mounted Fukasawa CD player, and a smart rotating system of small ceramic artworks, which he can arrange to create a mood board for his designs.
The narrow kitchen is nearby, behind a curtain, where Ryo leans on S-hooks to hold his most-used tools, like scissors, and hardest to store tools, like a kettle. He removed the sliding door between his bedroom and the living area to let more light in, trading privacy for the brightness of a large one-room apartment.
Ryo’s home reflects his creativity and resourcefulness, with small, handmade objects dotted around. This is a space that is not only uniquely his own but also a reflection of his values as a maker and an artist.
Similar to other artists who have successfully merged their living and working spaces, Ryo’s approach to his home reflects his artistic philosophy, emphasizing the importance of functionality and creativity in everyday life. By constantly reworking and reusing materials, Ryo has created a space that is not only uniquely his own but also a reflection of his values as a maker and an artist, much like the design of a tiny rooftop home that blends colour and space.
Ryo’s home is a reflection of his personality, with every item carefully considered and intentionally placed. As he continues to work and live in his space, it will be interesting to see how it evolves and changes over time, always remaining a true reflection of his artistic vision and values.
