Adam Nathaniel Furman instills his pop colour aesthetic in Nagatachō Apartment

Welcome to Nagatachō Apartment, which has been designed by London-based designer and artist Adam Nathaniel Furman and features delightful, candy coloured walls and floors. Situated in the heart of a governmental administrative district of central Tokyo, Japan, the compact flat is defined by Furman’s typical use of bright, pastel palettes, natural and artificial materials, and “an open and interconnected layout with gathering at its heart, that combines to create a voluptuous interior world of perfectly poised, gentle deviance,” as described by Furman.

The Nagatachō Apartment reminds one of the overly pastel, bubbly accents used in K-Pop video sets, the likes of Russian Roulette by Red Velvet or BTS’s Dynamite, owning its “hyper-aestheticised celebration of the senses, and of every-day domestic life,” in its fun interior design. Planned across 160 sqm, the small yet visually rich apartment hosts three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large communal living area and a terrace. The previously dingy, cramped space was opened up and transformed by Furman into a fun, joyful, light filled abode for the client, through the use of dynamic, crisp colour palettes and simple patterns, along with white surfaces that make it seem more expansive.

Every inch of the residential design is plastered with bright hues and lightness, maybe a tad bit overpowering at times. “Materials are celebrated for their sensuality, and their effect on the imagination, rather than their origins, so translucent plastic artificial marbles sit next to the highest quality hand-finished spruce, which is in turn next to the highest quality hand-made porcelain handles, which in turn are next to beautifully glossy nylon fixtures, hand-made carpet next to vinyl, and exquisite textured wallpaper next to semi-matte plastic wall finishes,” shares Furman. The wooden details and cabinetry employed inside are all made by hand by skilled carpenters while the marquetry doors are fabricated using laser cutting technology.

The apartment’s vibrant kitchen takes centrestage with its carnation pink surfaces, pastel yellow accents, straight white shelves and avocado green stripped flooring. Navy blue, rounded armless stools seen in the kitchen are the Drop chairs designed by Arne Jacobsen (originally from 1958) for Fritz Hansen, which accompany the breakfast bar, complementing the bubblegum palette and the blue herringbone tiled partition wall that they face.

The dining room hosts light chairs with toffee orange seats resting on the lavender, soft carpeted floor that Furman describes as having a "feel of sponge cake and looks like icing". The Fri JH4 Chair and footstool by Jaime Hayon for Fritz Hansen, done in blue and muted sea green also sit here, against a wide wall of sliding glass doors that flood the space with natural light. He shares that most of the kitchen and dining area has been influenced by cooking and the general colour palette of food, translating into the theme of “a beautifully calibrated visual feast”.

Light cyan blue wallpaper divides the bottom of one of the bedrooms from the white on top, while another one employs lime green, following the corridor line outside. The sliding wardrobes are finished in bright orange and soft blue, with a comical yellow circle set on top. Square, pygmy tiles cover the bathroom walls and floor, stemming from a typical Japanese mosaic tiled restroom. Pop yellow cabinets provide a fun contrast to these tiles here, along with bright yellow taps fixed on coral pink and baby blue sinks.  

“The Nagatachō Apartment is an experiment in the euphoric connoisseurship of colour, texture, material and form in the theatre of the quotidian, a space that elevates the client’s daily rituals and communal activities into a space of continuously seductive aesthetic delectation,” Furman concludes.