Attractions in Eindhoven

The former Philips manufacturing complex, closed to the public for most of the twentieth century, transformed since 2000 into the most compelling urban district in the Netherlands. The original factory buildings, including the Klokgebouw, Ketelhuis, Machinekamer, and Veemgebouw, now house design studios, concept stores, restaurants, creative workspaces, a cinema, an art gallery, and one of Europe’s largest indoor skateparks. The Torenallee is the main boulevard, the Leidingstraat is a cable street turned elevated garden designed by Piet Oudolf, and street art covers large sections of the original factory walls. The entire district is the primary venue for Dutch Design Week every October. Worth an afternoon of open-ended exploration any time of year.

Known as the smartest square kilometre in the world, the High Tech Campus is a campus of over 300 technology companies and research institutes including ASML, NXP, Philips, and hundreds of startups and scale-ups working on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, health technology, and advanced manufacturing. Founded by Philips in 1998, the campus is open to visitors and the architecture, scale, and concentration of serious research activity is genuinely striking to walk through. A bicycle ride around the campus perimeter gives a more vivid sense of Eindhoven’s technology economy than any description can convey. The on-campus facilities include restaurants, a gym, and event spaces accessible to visitors.

A former military police barracks on the Paradijslaan converted into one of the most distinctive design and hospitality venues in Eindhoven. Kazerne operates as a design gallery, concept store, innovation lab, restaurant, and boutique hotel all within the same historic complex. Temporary exhibitions showcase international designers and the permanent collection rotates to keep regulars returning. Restaurant Benz operates from the coach house of the complex. The combination of genuine architectural character, consistently interesting design programming, and an excellent restaurant make it one of the most rewarding single addresses in the city for design-minded visitors. Free to enter for gallery and exhibition spaces.

The compound that internationally celebrated designer Piet Hein Eek built inside a former Philips ceramic factory in the Strijp-R district, a short distance from Strijp-S. The complex contains the design studio and workshop where Eek’s signature scrap-wood and recycled-material furniture is made, a large showroom and shop open to visitors, an exhibition space, a restaurant with roof terrace, and a hotel. The restaurant in particular is a highlight: filled with Eek’s own recycled-wood furniture, a chandelier made from dozens of repurposed lamps, and a seasonal menu that changes with what is available. Visiting the whole complex takes a morning and rewards the time properly invested.

The curving, glass-clad structure at the entrance to the Admirant shopping complex on the 18 Septemberplein, designed by Massimiliano Fuksas and completed in 2010. The Blob is one of the most photographed pieces of contemporary architecture in the Netherlands and an unavoidable landmark in the city centre. Its organic form and reflective glass skin make it look different at every angle and in every light condition. An example of the kind of architectural ambition that Eindhoven pursues more consistently than most Dutch cities its size. Worth seeing up close even if you have no interest in the shopping centre behind it.

The largest design event in northern Europe, held across nine days in Eindhoven every October. Over 2,600 designers and creatives present work across more than 120 locations throughout the city, with Strijp-S, the Klokgebouw, Sectie-C, and the Design Academy Eindhoven as the main hubs. The focus is on speculative and future-facing design rather than commercial product launches, which gives it a character quite different from trade fairs. Graduate shows from leading design academies across Europe are a consistent highlight. The city’s hotels fill weeks in advance. For expats based in Eindhoven it is a reason to stay; for visitors from elsewhere in the Netherlands and Europe it is one of the genuinely unmissable annual events in the country.

A free annual light art festival held across eight evenings in November, transforming Eindhoven’s streets, buildings, and waterways into a citywide installation of light art. International artists create large-scale immersive projections, interactive light sculptures, and illuminated architectural installations that turn the city into something entirely different after dark. The route runs through the city centre and Strijp-S, with new works commissioned each year alongside a small number of returning favourites. Consistently described as one of the finest free public art events in the Netherlands. The city fills significantly during GLOW week and the atmosphere on the streets is warm and communal in a way that Eindhoven rarely is outside a football night.

An industrial creative campus housing over 250 makers, designers, and entrepreneurs who open their studio doors to the public on the last Sunday of every month. The range of work is genuinely broad: furniture makers, textile designers, ceramicists, product designers, architects, and digital creators all operate from the campus. Visitors can watch work in progress, buy directly from makers, and attend the food market and events that accompany the open day. One of the few places in the Netherlands where you can observe the full range of independent design practice in a single afternoon. More interesting and less curated than a design fair, which is exactly what makes it worth the visit.

An art gallery and cultural space in a former Philips factory at Strijp-S focused on hybrid and experimental art that crosses boundaries between disciplines. MU’s programming explores what art can be rather than what it already is, which in practice means exhibitions that involve technology, performance, social practice, and interactive installations alongside more conventional visual art. The raw industrial interior with concrete walls and ceiling provides a setting where ambitious work reads clearly. Consistently one of the most interesting gallery programmes in the Netherlands for art that engages seriously with technology and culture. Free to enter and worth checking the current programme before any visit to Strijp-S.

A large neo-Gothic church with twin towers built in 1867, sitting in the centre of Eindhoven on the Catharinaplein, directly on Stratumseind. The spacious interior is serene despite being perpetually busy, with stained-glass windows that produce changing light effects through the day, detailed floor designs, and significant sculptures throughout. A genuine piece of historic architecture in a city that demolished much of its pre-war centre to accommodate growth. Free to enter and a useful counterpoint to the industrial and contemporary design that dominates Eindhoven’s other attractions. A good place to rest and reorient mid-afternoon.

A 600-metre cycle path between Eindhoven and Nuenen created by artist Daan Roosegaarde and inspired by Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. Thousands of solar-charged luminous stones set into the path surface absorb daylight and glow blue-green after dark, creating a light installation that can be experienced on any clear evening by bicycle. The path connects to the broader Van Gogh cycle route through Brabant, passing the landscapes that Van Gogh painted during his time in Nuenen between 1883 and 1885. The combination of a serious contemporary land art installation and a genuinely beautiful cycling route through the Brabant countryside makes it one of the most memorable things to do within cycling distance of Eindhoven.