The Netherlands' Design Capital — Philips' birthplace, the Dutch Design Week, Van Abbe Museum, and a food scene shaped by immigrant communities
Eindhoven is the Netherlands' fifth-largest city and its capital of design and technology — Philips Electronics was founded here in 1891 and the company's former factories have been converted into the Strijp-S creative district, a vast post-industrial cultural campus of studios, galleries, restaurants, and design offices. The annual Dutch Design Week in October is Europe's largest design event. The Van Abbemuseum holds one of the world's most important collections of contemporary and Conceptual art, anchored by El Lissitzky and Picasso. Eindhoven's large Turkish, Moroccan, and Vietnamese comm…
Eindhoven was a small market town of barely 5,000 people in 1891 when Anton and Gerard Philips established their incandescent lamp factory, beginning the transformation that would turn it into an industrial city of over 200,000. Philips' growth through the 20th century — into radios, televisions, shavers, and medical technology — made Eindhoven one of the most company-dependent cities in Western Europe, with all civic infrastructure effectively built and subsidized by Philips. The company's partial withdrawal from the city in the 1990s created an urban identity crisis that was resolved throug…