Cultural Omnivore: upcycle

Friday, February 17, 2012

One stop! Locavore and upcycling

Restaurants that sell their interior? You may ask yourself, does that make sense? Is it just smart marketing? However when you connect the dots with sustainability as a red thread it becomes a strong concepts that advocates a sustainable lifestyle.

The latest restaurant to appear is Te Koop in Utrecht, a green concept with a high feel-good factor. The name says it; the interior is for sale; all the interior decoration is made by Decodel who are specialized in up-cycling vintage interior objects whilst adding a quirky Dutch kitsch touch to them in the doing. The restaurant is full of little still-life's and small collections of particular items. The food is biologic and as much as possible locally sourced. Their slogan says it all; "we really believe the world could be a better place if we think green, so let's recycle.

Eetcafe Te Koop, Utrecht

The Smalle Haven in Eindhoven has a similar concept; the food is locally sourced and fresh from the market, there is no fixed menu, the ingredients are composed into a dish on the spot in coordination with the chef. The interior objects are all for sale. The style is more second-hand collectors items with designer signature, with emphasis on Dutch Design (Gispen etc). Adjacent to the restaurant is Dutch Design Year which sells interior items by new Dutch Designers.

De Smalle Haven, Eindhoven

Latei in Amsterdam probably was the pioneer, they connect good food with locally sourced ingredients to an over-full Amsterdam living room annex Waterloo plein second-hand like interior where everything is for sale.

Latei, Amsterdam

It's interesting to see this new category appear, another retail conversion point where peoples numerous interests are brought together and addressed in one place. This time one where food meets interior, whilst we seen have many others, i.e read my post on the Village Coffee, where coffee is mixed with indie music and local art in a industrial vintage setting.

Is it just the crisis and smart cross-selling? or is it perhaps an analogue response to the internet, 3rd places are becoming interest based hang-outs, where you can meet like-minded people. And naturally retailers are looking for the cross-points of interest to build an interest-based multiple touch-point experience.

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.