Residing just outside of the Bijenkorf department store in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the Eindhoven Living Square provides audiences with a place to relax but is also connected to a larger vision for the entire space. This connection highlights what it can mean to imagine a new way to connect people and places in ways that compel further activity.
The Vision of Gio Ponti
Gio Ponti was an Italian artist who built more than a hundred buildings in the course of his career. His most famous works reside in Italy but in the 1960s he was involved with a project to reimagine the experiences that audiences could have with the Bijenkorf department store in Eindhoven. To do so, he created a tiled facade for the existing building that was further invigorated with the unsystematic arrangement of its openings of various shapes and sizes.
Ponti extended this arrangement of design and purpose to the area in front of the building, which instead of being an empty square was instead transformed thanks to the installation of a functional sculpture. The Eindhoven Living Square is comprised of various abstract shapes and figures, some of which form benches and planters. This design was specifically intended to be a living square where department store visitors or anyone else could meet in order to interact with one another and the space.
Allowing visitors to view the abstract shapes or physically engage with the sculpture by taking a seat or even parking their bikes, the Eindhoven Living Square provides visitors with a variety of experiences that are connected to what was envisioned for the Bijenkorf department store. This connection showcases how the form and function of a monument can create multiple benefits for stakeholders and with audiences of all types.
Form and Function Cultivate Engagement
Various monuments and sculptures have practical purposes but few have been able to integrate form and function into a space in such a natural manner as the Eindhoven Living Square. Providing the Bijenkorf department store with an attraction that is connected to the aesthetic of the complex, the Eindhoven Living Square highlights what it can mean for an imaginative vision to define the present and future of an entire area.
