The city looks rather boring, with grey buildings and black asphalt. That’s what a group of young designers in Eindhoven must have thought. They’re seizing the city center as a stage for a pop-up design streetproject to give the city more colour. And that colour is green. “Green is hip”, calls Baptiste Labat from a ladder. Three projects highlighted:

Gardening Love Machine @ Pullman Hotel

The 3th-year student at the Design Academy is busy gluing a glass plate onto a little house he’s building in front of the Pullman hotel. With a smoothly executed jump he descends from the ladder. He strikes his hair back and enthusiastically starts to tell: “this is the gardening love machine. When it is finished there will be a veranda and nice plants. Visitors can go inside to look at the plants. The intension is to inspire people to use more green in the city, because look around you? It is a grey meaning isn’t?” The concept isn’t just about brightening up the city. It has to form a link between designers and entrepreneurs. “During the Dutch Design Week there are a lot of people walking through the city, for the catering sector it’s beneficial if the people stay for a sandwich or another cup of coffee.”

Sight Delight @ Mr Brown

Another project from Labat and his four companions is shown at the terrace of Mr Brown at the Nieuwe Emmasingel. “Mr Brown is shop for glasses, but at the same time it’s a coffee shop. That’s a really interesting and funny combination. Inside people are fitting glasses, they’re looking at themselves in the mirror. While at the same time, outside, people are just looking around. Like people do when they’re on a terrace.” Labat takes a puff from a sigaret he just lighted. Slowly he exhales the smoke and then continues: “This part of the project is much more conceptual, but to say it simply we want to create a different way of looking. By placing textile partitions we can divide the space in other ways.” The partitions which Labat mentioned are textile canvases full of autumn-like leaves, that are falling out of the trees right now. “This effect on the canvases, with green, red and brown are the colours of autumn. It is based on an English garden, in the middle of the city. It gives another view at the current use of space.”

Neon Jungle @ Gaper

“Have you ever been on the terrace of the Gaper? Wow, it’s always full and crowded! We designed a playful way to spread the crowd. We made an artificial jungle with green neon lights and little spots people can explore. It’s a completely new environment they can experience on the terrace. But also inside there’s a lot happening to emphasize the theme. Green lights, neon, paint that lights up in the dark etc. I hope we can inspire people and that we can show them again that you can use the space in the city in different ways.” Labat works together with four other designers from the Design Academy: Nadiah El Sayed, Doris Verlaat, Ines Sistiaga and Clara Escalera. According to Labat the collaboration works excellent, they complete each other and are a close team. “It’s a nice mix of different people, there’s a connection. But everyone has their own vision. We all want to show good work because this is a great change to share concepts with a big audience.”

Author: E52 Milan Lenters

Photos: Ruud Balk