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.
Piet Hein Eek lifestyle shop - ceramics and tableware
An institute of men’s fashion in the Netherlands has just opened his new shop at the Springweg in Utrecht. The street and the outside is as pretty as most of the old center in Utrecht. It doesn’t reveal anything of the industrial raw edges and glam decay that you find inside the shop. It looks like an abandoned building has been hijacked and covered with a eclectic perfect varnish, where decomposition seems to have been frozen, captured in this moment and stopped.
The space is vast, with a pleasant light bathed atrium in the middle. The floors have been stripped back to their most raw and primary state, it’s a patchwork of raw concrete, gravel filled cement and old planks. The simple bricks that are typically used for construction, lay uncovered; naked, brute and crude. The rawness and imperfections have been framed by perfect white walls and are being interrupted by perfectly geometrically shelving systems. The industrial feel is enhanced with simple uncovered fluorescent tubes in the ceiling, clothes are exhibited on iron carts painted in a subtle utilitarian camouflage green the only color that seems to have been used. Unpolished copper is highlighting details such as clothes racks, window frames and doorknobs of the change rooms. It is now already covered with fingerprints and with time it will continue to develop a varnish, and the parts that are outside will corrode into a beautiful green.
Men come from all over the Netherlands to shop at Cris, the careful selection of menswear reflects an eclectic urban casual style. The first Cris shop was opened in 1999. The vision of Cris is described as honest advise, attention and care, small-scaled and authenticity. Cris puts emphasis on honest and approachable service; the atmosphere the personnel set in the shop is helpful and friendly it feels like a warm welcome.
