Cultural Omnivore: Lifestyle according to Piet Hein Eek

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Lifestyle according to Piet Hein Eek

Piet Hein Eek has made a bold move, he has saved an old industrial heritage Philips building from demolition AND opened his own lifestyle shop. The old industrial entourage perfectly fits Piet Hein Eeks style and ambitions. Here he can house his production facility, his own shop and a cafe plus rent out spaces for other creatives as a sort of mecenas for young and up-coming talent, all under one roof. This is promising to become the new creative hot-spot, shopping and get-together space of Eindhoven.
Brilliant extension of the brand Piet Hein Eek from being furniture being made by himself primarily from old reclaimed wood to a space housing like-minded people and products, all hand-selected by himself. The idea of bringing production close to the sales is also interesting and very much in-touch with the spirit of the time, the designer is as much the craftsman and it's the person that comes with an idea. And the idea of local produce is appealing in these times of outsourcing and China being the factory of the world, it's a welcome and refreshing change, to be able to walk through this space and seeing where stuff is actually being made. It bring the making and the selling closer to each other, and creates a realistic picture in the mind of the consumer of how things are being made. New simplicity.