Everything
Count how many restaurants you know that have a simple and healthy menu, rich and well presented, and at a reasonable price. Barely any, right? The same can be said of the muted beauty of the everyday objects that Japanese mega-brand Muji has sold since 1980. “In Japan the cheap was very much frowned upon, but we made a quality product at a reasonable price. We eliminated the logo and everything superfluous, ridding everything but the fundamental”, says Muji president, Satoru Matsuzaki.
“We think from the point of view of the client, not the company directive,” he adds. Matsuzaki also maintains that Muji does not compete with anyone and that his only intention is to equip us for daily life. Matsuzaki feels Muji only appeals to a tenth of the population that, he says, might use his products. But this company that expresses its respect for the art of living through its toasters and brown notebooks already has a hotel, has furnished the Narita airport and even offers a prefabricated cabin, Muji Hut.
This cottage has a compact interior of just nine square meters, but if you add the porch and the roof, it can be habitable for four people. On the facade, a side-by-side window that serves as a sliding door and mask the table so the light does not bother you too much.
Muji Hut is made entirely of local wood, has been built following the traditional art of the Japanese naval industry, with cedar burned to increase its resistance to which an oil finish has been added.
A virgin interior, undecorated, so that the guest can adjust it to their tastes, and a mortar floor that protects from the humidity of the soil, this cabin – “easy to maintain” – has launched on the market with a price of $30 thousand AUD. For this price tag, your life can become Muji. The question is whether one is capable of keeping it so clean.
