Baekelandplein

Commissioned by the City Council in conjunction with a project developer and a housing corporation, an extremely diverse program was realized in a problem area of Eindhoven known as Woensel-West. The project consists of fifty apartments, 3000 m2 of office space, studios, a market hall where stalls can be rented by the meter, a police post and a square for regulated prostitution.

On the side of the Baekelandplein, the complex has a hard and shiny exterior in order to block out the traffic on the ring road but it opens out behind this glossy shell onto a collective deck with parking space underneath. The prostitution plaza, a regulated version of a pre-existing activity, is turned away from the housing and lies to one side. The studios act as a buffer between this fringe of society and everyday life. The mix of unlikely functions together with the way in which the complex stands out from its surroundings makes the Baekelandplein a typical Eindhoven project, befitting of a city which is, in so many ways, more often characterised by contrast than harmony.