Born in Holland in 1967, Piet Hein Eek made an immediate impact on the Scandinavian design world with his final exam project for the Academy for Industrial Design in Eindhoven. Titled “Scrap Wood Cupboards,” the pieces were constructed of reclaimed lumber yard wood. His student collection garnered immediate attention, perceived by many in the design world as a bold reaction to both mass-production banality and material waste.

In 1992, he opened a studio with designer Nob Ruijgrok, forming Eek en Ruijgrok v.o.f. His most famous piece, Waste Furniture, was designed here out of discarded products, fomenting his vision of blending skilled, technically precise design with the nascent credo of “reuse, recycle, reuse.” Another line soon followed, Waste Waste 40x40 - pixelated-looking pieces built from “leftovers from the leftovers,” with materials cut into identical squares of 40 by 40 millimeters then assembled to cover chairs, tables and benches.

Eek has since expanded into rugs, household wares, wallpaper, watches and eyewear. He also created a restaurant – filled with his own pieces – and an art gallery, housed in his studio in Eindhoven, Holland. His critically acclaimed interior design projects also include redeveloped industrial buildings, farmhouses and greenhouses.