If you’re looking to create high-end design on an IKEA budget, take inspiration from Japanese artist and architect Takayoshi Kitagawa, who renovated his parents’ 38-year old apartment and studio in Osaka and transformed it into a dynamic, modernist living space.

Kitagawa’s father was a collector of odds and ends that dominated the living space. So the architect had made it his task to create shelving that would hold his father’s collection while also allowing it to ebb away into the background of their life – a type of harmony between lifestyle and object.

Kitagawa worked primarily with IKEA’s KALLAX shelving units, which come in multiple models and configurations. And he got the idea to transform them into parabolic forms after draping duct tape from the ceiling, which drooped down to create the U-shaped orientations. “The parabolic shelf hanging from the ceiling makes contact with the floor while gradually squeezing the light entering through the window,” explains Kitagawa. “Shadows are created on the floor around the contact point, and the form is established structurally.”

Kitagawa created a total of 3 of these floor-to-ceiling units in slightly different sizes, and oriented them differently throughout the apartment.