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The reservation of land by the municipality of Eindhoven and the project developer for the spectacular Dutch Mountains architecture project attracted the most visitors to Innovation Origins this week. That the 155-metre-high ‘high-tech calling card’ does not have just fans was well known. Nevertheless, disapproval on social media has been limited this time around. “Probably for the higher market segment again, not a tree in sight by the way… I can take it or leave it”, writes a loyal reader on Facebook.

Perhaps the artist’s impression does not show everything, as this time the architects of the new Brainport Eindhoven and Brabant calling card have certainly taken into account a “green approach, smart mobility solutions and a good connection with the city center”.

With the 155-metre high towers, also known as “Internationale Knoop XL”, the city of Eindhoven wants to make the image of technology, design and knowledge more visible.

Life-threatening behaviour

It remains to be seen whether the smart mobility solutions mentioned above also include the very popular electric scooters which are already being used in other countries. In an equally well-read column, Carlo van de Weijer describes that people by nature “are not so economical with things that don’t belong to them: the average life span of the first generation of electric scooters turned out to be around 30 days, and even now the scooters barely last more than 3 months. This means that the total CO2 emissions per kilometer from such a scooter are more than those of an electric car. Whereas that form of transport often replaces walking, cycling or public transport.”

Our Munich editor Christiane Manow-Le Ruyet describes in a commentary that the sometimes life-threatening behaviour of kamikaze pilots on sh*tty scooters in Paris even triggered a PR campaign by Lime, the major supplier of rental scooters.