Teruhiro Yanagihara Studio

Teruhiro Yanagihara is a Japanese designer whose multidisciplinary practice spans architecture, interiors, furniture, product design and creative direction. Working between Japan and Europe, his studio explores the relationship between craftsmanship, culture and everyday life through a refined and quietly expressive design language.

About

Founded in 2002, Teruhiro Yanagihara Studio (TYS) has established an international practice working across architecture, interiors, furniture, product design and creative direction. Based in Kobe, Japan, the studio collaborates with leading international companies including Kvadrat, Karimoku New Standard, 1616 / Arita Japan, Skagerak and Kimura Glass, creating projects that balance contemporary design with traditional craftsmanship.

Rather than focusing on a recognisable visual style, Yanagihara approaches each project through observation, context and collaboration. His work reflects a deep appreciation for materials, making and cultural exchange, resulting in objects and spaces that feel timeless, understated and carefully considered.

Beyond commercial projects, Yanagihara founded VAGUE, a hybrid studio, gallery and cultural platform with spaces in Kobe and Arles. Conceived as a place for exhibitions, residencies, research and interdisciplinary collaborations, VAGUE reflects the studio's belief that design extends beyond objects to include conversation, hospitality and shared experiences. The name, meaning wave in French, captures the fluid and evolving nature of the practice.

Teruhiro Yanagihara's work forms part of the permanent collections of institutions including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Through every project, he continues to explore how design can connect people, materials and place with clarity and quiet generosity.

For Blēo, Teruhiro Yanagihara translates this philosophy into colour, developing a collection inspired by subtle tonal relationships, natural materials and the calm atmospheres found throughout his architectural and interior work.

Life and Decay by Teruhiro Yanagihara Studio

By observing the ever-changing nuances found in nature's cycles, an appreciation of the dynamic transformation of colours as time progresses, from the lively emergence of growth seeds and their fruitful yield to the subsequent withers and returns to the earth. Like the forest's graceful weather, the rocks and minerals undergo a transformative decay, even their appearance changes, the colours change. How bacteria react to specific stimuli, elicit reactions that influence and modify each other. Across the spectrum of time, whether spanning days, a single year, or even a century, the diverse range of temporal frames, reveal the fleeting nature of both time itself and ever-changing aspects of nature. Within this impermanence, new nuances emerge and paint a living testimony of the eternal evolution of colours.