March 28, 2024


The place where the famous Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek has settled on the outskirts of Eindhoven has become a nerve center of this city in the south of the Netherlands. There, in the buildings evicted from that old industrial zone, he began in 2010 by installing his studio, his factory / workshop (where you can see the workers working on his pieces) and his immense showroom, a kind of showcase where everything he makes is shown, from his ceramics to his furniture, his rugs or his watches. Later, he added a large store where you can buy not only his own products but also those of many interesting young designers – at the creator’s discretion – along with vintage objects, some clothing or cookbooks. It also has several exhibition spaces, which are used in the autumn during Dutch Design Week, as well as a bustling cafe-restaurant, designed by himself, of course, in that casually charming tone of economy. circular, sustainability and social responsibility, the pillars of his professional practice.

The latest addition to this parallel world has been a small hotel, the Piet Hein Eek, so that you no longer have to leave there on your next visits to the city, making the experience a complete immersion in the world of this pioneering designer. of recycling whose modus operandi He is a model and example for many others.

Illuminated dice invite you to enter the Piet Hein Eek hotel in Eindhoven.
Illuminated dice invite you to enter the Piet Hein Eek hotel in Eindhoven.NICK BOOKELAAR

Illuminated dice placed vertically in front of the windows of the large brick building indicate the entrance. After going up a narrow staircase, on the second floor we find The Wonder Roomwhich contains the bar counter that serves as reception and from where you can see the kitchens and some adjoining rooms, especially the so-called meeting room, where the artistic installation of the White Noise Dada collective is located, a wall made of cement and pieces of foam mattress forming a mosaic of colors. A jug of art, design and antiques. The floors of the reception space are covered in recycled carpet scraps, the lamps are signature lamps, as is the furniture, some of which is custom made for the place, such as the long benches in the restaurant.

The small room 'The Night Watch', the work of the young designer Teun Zwets.
The small room ‘The Night Watch’, the work of the young designer Teun Zwets.NICK BOOKELAAR

From this floor there is access to a large terrace that is an essential piece in summer: there is the Dak-bar, a bar housed in the area where the elevator machinery was, with fantastic views of Eindhoven. Also noteworthy is the small room The Night Watch, a piece that in itself justifies a visit and that Piet Hein Eek commissioned the young designer Teun Zwets, also interested in producing from waste. It is a room made as a patchwork of wood, recovered from the remains of Piet’s carpentry, all painted blue (also leftover paint from the workshop). The result is like being immersed in a Kurt Schwitters play. The blue room communicates with the rest of that floor through pivoting doors that remain open when not occupied.

One of the rooms of the Piet Hein Eek hotel.
One of the rooms of the Piet Hein Eek hotel.Hotel Piet Hein Eek

The accommodation consists of 13 rooms on the top floor, all of them are different, but they share the large windows so that as much natural light as possible enters in a city where it is scarce. The interior, designed, of course, by Piet Hein Eek, uses a color palette of muted, powdery tones, from the firm Lacq, with which he himself has made a collection of wall paintings, as well as the carpets, created by Best Wools Carpets and the designers at Studio Rens. The door handles are also his design for the LABO firm. The beds are a robust and simple steel structure that he designed specifically for this project together with the famous Dutch brand Auping. Also, a mix of furniture and lighting from his own catalog along with antique furniture and some custom made pieces.

All this is sprinkled with works of contemporary art, each artist gets a room, and Daniel Ruanova, Gabriel Roca, Bert Teunissen, Jan van der Ploeg, Marc Mulders, Marc Ruygrok, Peter van der Heijden, Reinoud van Vught, Sjimmie Veenhuis, Tokhiro Sato, Tom Claassen, and Willem van den Hoed.

The bar of the Hotel Piet Hein Eek.
The bar of the Hotel Piet Hein Eek.NICK BOOKELAAR

Those who are interested in the design and construction process can read the publications that the designer himself has been posting on his blog, with drawings and ideas for every detail of the hotel and numerous stories, some horror, about all the difficulties he has gone through until get finish it. And those who are lucky enough to spend the night there and become infatuated with an object in their room just have to go down to the store to get it.

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