21st Century (2000–present)

Eindhoven Brainport City Vision

2016– · Netherlands · Western & Central Europe · Innovation districts, knowledge corridors, and economic clustering · Planned by Brainport partners
Historic aerial photograph of Eindhoven, the Brainport city core.
Historic aerial photograph of Eindhoven, the Brainport city core. · CC BY-SA 4.0

Core idea

Tech campus nodes + mobility

Why it matters

Knowledge-region spatial vision

Description

The Eindhoven Brainport City Vision, developed from 2016 by the Brainport partnership of municipalities, industry and knowledge institutions, set out a spatial strategy for the high-tech region of south-east Brabant. It organised growth around technology campus nodes such as the High Tech Campus and Eindhoven's station district, linked by improved mobility and an internationally connected knowledge axis. The vision works at a regional scale, aligning urban intensification in Eindhoven with the innovation economy anchored by firms such as ASML and Philips.

Significance

Brainport exemplifies the Dutch turn towards knowledge-region planning, in which spatial strategy is framed around innovation districts and economic clustering rather than conventional land-use allocation. Its triple-helix governance model of government, business and research institutions has been influential in European discussions of how second cities can compete through coordinated campus and corridor development.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.