Atsuko Tsukahara

With a childhood inspired by beautiful art by her father who was an artist and an architect, Astuko Tsukahara decided to pursue her dream career in interior design. Astuko started out studying European Culture and History and went on to work in advertising but swiftly obtained her Diploma in interior design and started working at a construction, architect and interior design company. In 2000, Astuko Tsukahara went on to establish Studio Cotan which is based in Japan. Studio Cotan is the home of interior design and provides rich ideas full of originality. Since founding this successful interior design studio, Astuko has studied at the Interior Design School in London in 2015 and is working with both Japanese and international clients as a member of BIID.

Please describe any new challenges faced /innovations explored whilst working on these design schemes? In the Japanese style room that we are working on, there will be a Japanese traditional sliding door panel called “Fusuma”. The panel will be bespoke and drawn by an artist. My new challenge would be to design the structure of the panel with “Kumiko”, which is a sophisticated technique of assembling wood pieces without using nails. The structure design will include their traditional family emblems, and it is very exciting challenge to design something that will unite the emblems and the artist’s work on the panel.