Niek Van Der Heijden’s love affair with design kicked off when he got his first tool kit as a child. ‘I used the wood saw to ruin my parents’ antiques dining table,’ he recalls. Despite this somewhat inauspicious start, twenty-odd years on his parents happily have plenty of reasons to forgive this early misdemeanor; he is currently working on a meeting place for a future centre, as well as on the development of new furniture. He describes his style as ‘a bit industrial but sympathetic, raw but sophisticated,’ and he is inspired by ‘abandoned stuff,’ and the fact that his chosen profession allows him to spend as little time as possible sitting at a computer. The ultimate dream is, he confides, ‘working somewhere with all the tools and materials I have ever wanted and eating only home-grown food.’ There are undoubtedly plenty more to come, but thus far, his proudest moment was ‘sitting in my Living Forum next to Rossana Orlandi after the opening of her exhibition in Milan.’
Most influenced by:
The people near me. Moments when my life is in its natural flow.
INFORMATION
INTERIORS
School
Design Academy Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Graduated
2009
