Every design for Veldhoven

Veldhoven lies on the Gender, a small stream on the south-western edge of Eindhoven, where the Kempen countryside of North Brabant begins to open out. Outside the region the name usually means one thing: ASML, the maker of chip lithography machines, has its headquarters here, in the tallest building in town. Yet the place is older and quieter than that reputation suggests. Four former villages – Veldhoven proper, Meerveldhoven, Oerle and Zeelst – grew together during the twentieth century, and a new centre was laid out between Zeelst and the old village.

't Oude Slot and the Burgemeester van Elsenpark belong to a town that keeps plenty of green between its streets. To the west and south lie the brook valleys of the Run and the Gender, old hamlets with long-fronted farmhouses, and woods that hide prehistoric burial mounds. Oerle has held on to its village character better than the others, and people still speak Kempenlands, an East Brabantian dialect. Theatre De Schalm, the Monday market and the Cult en Tumult festival set the rhythm of the centre.

Coming back means leaving the motorway by Eindhoven Airport and recognising, street by street, the four villages that became one place to call home.