Dead wood Redux

Bill Hilgendorf and company bring a whole new meaning to the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle.”
By Christian Ghigliotty

Red Hook lies in ruins.

Even on days where the sun warms the mahogany bricks of the many hollowed, dusty factories along the waterfront, the neighborhood has the feel of a place long forgotten. Iron wrought fences bend back as if stepped on by giants. Human sized oil drums are scattered and labeled “hazardous liquid” in rushed handwriting, amongst warped deadwood that look like fossil remains. Despite the Red Hook Flea Market a few blocks away, it is noticeably empty on a Sunday afternoon. There is a quiet hum underneath the streets that can be heard, like something is brooding beneath. This is just one of Bill Hilgendorfʼs many Brooklyn playgrounds.

“I was so amazed at the stuff that people would throw out…full pieces of furniture, cutoffs of wood, material…you walk around on the streets on a trash day and youʼll never know what youʼll see.”

Bill is the cofounder (with business partner Jason Horvath) of Uhuru [pronounced oo-hoo-roo], a design and build furniture company dedicated to sustainability, repurposing materials such as riven deadwood to craft products with an emphasis on minimal, modern form. The word Uhuru is proudly emblazoned on the company’s insignia and is the Swahili word for freedom. It also happens to be the name of one of Bill’s favorite bands. As he talks he moves with a softness and fluidity that one does not expect from someone raised in Boston. The word “like” is prevalent in between flailing arms. Heʼs all knees and elbows. A short boxed beard sprouts from an affable face, a tidy shag cut skims above lightly colored eyebrows.

Video Interview

The two founded the company in 2004, and primarily collect scrap woods from local Brooklyn wood shops, leaving small bins to discard wood that’s not used in their production, which is then upcycled to create furniture that leaves the smallest environmental footprint possible without sacrificing quality, aesthetic, and durability. “…we like to show the simplicity of the material. So if itʼs wood, highlighting the figure of grain pattern, metal…can have a really great texture. Minimal forms with decorative graphics.”

Located in an old foundry in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Uhuruʼs has the feel of an old World War II manufacturing facility. Saws and welding tools moan as wood is cut to form. Weathered screw drivers and hammers hang from cork board, each one carrying memories of the furniture it helped create in the grooves of its handles and bits. Uhuruʼs insignia—a chair with wings spanned proudly flying underneath the word Uhuru, each of the letters like miniature pieces of Bill’s furniture—even seems to speak of another time, perhaps one better than this one. Each piece is built by hand and as a result no two pieces are the same, each sui generis in color, texture and grain. Their product line is replete with tables, beds and seating that echo their vision, however none greater than the Stoolen end table , one of Uhuruʼs original items that help push the company to its current standing. Using a vegetable based resin, dozens of smaller two inch pieces of wood are glued together into the top surface of a hollowed base, similar to that of a barrel. After sanding and multiple coats of finish, the end resembles a three dimensional puzzle that is inherently beautiful and deceptively stylish.

Billʼs passion for furniture design was rooted in scavenging for discarded electronics, bicycle parts, unwanted furniture that was left on curbs or in trash bins as a child, trying to Frankenstein whatever he could into something reusable. This obsession led to a degree as an adult from the Rhode Island School of Design studying industrial design. During his junior year Bill studied abroad for a semester in Stockholm , Sweden, where he started building furniture he was passionate about, using his hands and found materials to create pieces that arenʼt as Bill says “cheesy product design”.

The idea of sustainability transcends the Uhuru brand, as evidenced in the art installation Bill created with his girlfriend and artist Maria Cristina Rueda, titled “63 chairs.” Originally on Columbia Street in Brooklyn, the installation was a collection of sixty-three chairs from the Carroll Gardens, Park Slope and Fort Greene neighborhoods, piled high along an a twenty-two foot wall. From July to October of 2008, the chairs were collected the night before trash day and painted black. Oddly enough most of them are still usable. The chairs inherent forms are underscored by the shape of the installation and the rich blank paint used to coat them. The installation exists seemingly on its own, devoid of time or of place. The chairs all seem to be banding together as if to ward off extinction. “We collected these chairs as a commentary on the throwaway culture…a lot of these chairs are in perfectly good condition. People are into the idea of things being flashy, it doesnʼt have to last. Gone are the days that furniture is passed down from generation to generation.”

Five years after its inception Uhuru continues to seek out new materials and new ways to create without waste. In preparation for New York design week (May 8-19^th) Uhuru has launched three new innovative designs: the Stitch Coffee table, the Standard chair, and the Metal Stoolen , a beautiful metal version of the company’s signature piece.

And just like all of his other pieces, the past and future intertwine in Bill’s work.

Bill’s Photo Shoot