Eindhoven City Guide

Eindhoven City Guide
With Caroline Bos, UNStudio

In everything Beulah undertakes, we are defined by civic-minded responsibility, rigorous research, global vision, innovative thinking and a passion for design and culture. We frequently look to a range of industry and thought leaders to share their thinking, insights and perspectives, often drawn from lived experiences.

With a wealth of inspiration and rich storytelling at our fingertips, we share this with you by way of our Beulah City Guides Series, an exploration of cities around the world, through the eyes of compelling industry and thought leaders.

UNStudio was born in 1997 out of the Van Berkel & Bos Architectuurbureau, which Caroline Bos and Ben Van Berkel set up 10 years prior. Established as a network of specialists in architecture, urban development and infrastructure, UNStudio has grown to include more than 300 staff coming from 27 countries, working on projects around the world from their offices in Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Frankfurt.

UNStudio’s completed work includes the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, the Moebius House near Amsterdam, the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Arnhem Central Station in the Netherlands, the Raffles City mixed-use development in Hangzhou, the Canaletto Tower in London and the Singapore University of Technology and Design. Joining this impressive list of projects will be our very own Southbank by Beulah project, with UNStudio, in collaboration with local Australian firm Cox Architecture, designing the winning concept, formerly known as ‘Green Spine’.

UNStudio has grown to include more than 300 staff coming from 27 countries, working on projects around the world

With incredibly innovative and boundary-pushing projects in cities all over the world, we are excited to share with you the following city guide, shared by UNStudio Co-Founder and Principal Urban Planner, Caroline Bos. This guide discusses Caroline’s memories and experiences of, and perspectives on Eindhoven, Netherlands.

De Blob Eindhoven

Eindhoven City Guide

Caroline, thanks for joining our City Guide Series! You’ve chosen to share your insights and experiences of Eindhoven with us – can you please share with us a bit more about this city?

Eindhoven is about an hour and a half away from Amsterdam. Although an old city and trade centre since the early 13th Century, it remained a small, out of the way place, until Mr Philips started his light bulb factory there in 1891. Within decades Philips had turned into a huge industry with tens of thousands of employers. As was common in that era, an entire neighbourhood (Philipsdorp) was built to house the labourers of the rapidly growing enterprise, comprising houses, schools, shops and leisure functions. On the strength of Philips, Eindhoven eventually grew into the fifth largest town in the Netherlands, with 240,000 inhabitants.

Art Gallery in Eindhoven

Why did you choose Eindhoven to explore with us?

Eindhoven is the design, technology and innovation hub of the Netherlands. The spirit of modernity has put its mark on how the city looks and how it operates. One of its most prominent buildings, Witte Dame (White Lady) which used to be the production facility of radio tubes was saved from demolition in the 1980s by the efforts of an artist and has since been successfully redeveloped. It now houses the Design Academy (led for many years by visionary trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort), the municipal library, and several other educational institutions as well as innovation-orientated companies.

Eindhoven is the design, technology and innovation hub of the Netherlands. The spirit of modernity has put its mark on how the city looks and how it operates.

On a more personal note, UNStudio has been working on the Helmond BSD project in the vicinity of Eindhoven for the past few years, which has really brought home to me what it means to explore the links between entrepreneurialism, innovation, urbanism and human welfare.

Where do you stay in this city? Any particular neighbourhood or hotel?

Hotels that have caught my eye are:

Neighbourhoods I recommend visiting are:

Strijp-S
Kanaalzone

Strijp-S is the site of the former Philipstown and has been regenerated as a mixed-use area with a large number of creative enterprises.

In Kanaalzone, the site of another former factory (Campina) is currently being regenerated. The area houses community initiatives, and (of course) some quirky design museums.

Eindhoven City Guide

Can you share with us your three favourite picks for each category below?

Cultural Institutions

Retail Destinations

StudioRuig – local fashion
Piet Hain Eek – design, cloths, art
CD Teek – records and music

Places to eat

Nightlife destinations

Lab-1 – cinema, music, events
Stadsbrouwerij – the local brewery
Koelhuis

Things to do in Eindhoven

Dutch Design Week, a yearly event in October
Strijp-S – re-use of old Philips Factory into co-working/lining, art and food spaces

Architecture

Rabobank HQ by UNStudio – partly new, partly reused
Medina Eindhoven by Neave Brown
De Bijenkorf – façade by Gio Ponti

Finally, do you have any tips, tricks or advice when travelling to Eindhoven?

The best time to travel to Eindhoven is in October when the Dutch Design Week takes place and the city transforms into a Design Hub.

About Caroline Bos

Caroline Bos, UNStudio

Caroline Bos studied History of Art at Birkbeck College of the University of London and Urban and Regional Planning at the Faculty of Geosciences, University of Utrecht. In 1988 she co-founded the Van Berkel & Bos Architectuurbureau with the architect Ben van Berkel, extending her theoretical and writing projects to the practice of architecture. In 1998 Caroline Bos co-founded UNStudio (United Net). She has taught as a guest lecturer at Princeton University, the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and the Academy of Architecture in Arnhem. In 2012 she was awarded an Honorary Professorship at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning.