Since opening his studio in Eindhoven in the 90s, Piet Hein Eek has become the king of scrap wood. He not only makes furniture and objects of the recycled, and leftover material, but has created a successful empire out of scrap. In an age that respects sustainable design and environmentally friendly materials, Eek has found the formula to become a star designer. In celebrating a new solo show at The Future Perfect, the gallery representing his work in the US, Eek appeared this evening at the gallery conversing with David Alhadeff, founder of the gallery, and I was there, making my way downtown in a lovely warm February evening. Like many of his peers at the Design Academy Eindhoven, his thesis project where he utilized refined cabinetmaking to transforming scraps into high design, has become his signature, shaping the direction of his career. His pieces of furniture look like collages of wood, not unsimilar to the traditional parquetry, meticulously painted and varnished in a variety of colors, always modular, always fresh, always young. Young forever. In the conversation today, Eek illuminated on a new collection in glass, which he created for French glass manufacture Veronese, using leftovers of glass ornaments in creating chandeliers made in glass tubes to which those parts are being slotted, each unique, each different. The successful formula: using scrap, treating it in the most meticulously, refined, labor-intensive cabinetmaking techniques, transforming the scrap into one-of-a kind ‘objects of desire.’
