Eindhoven is experiencing a remarkable urban development. Within a century, the small-scale city center of the originally medieval town changed into a modern city, with attractive department stores, high-rise offices and wide traffic routes. These urban changes did not just happen; they caused a great deal of debate. The discussion that followed the presentation of the Cityplan, for example, was accompanied by "furious outbursts, harsh reproaches and views defended with fire," as the Eindhovens Dagblad wrote in 1969. But more happened. Poems were also written, songs composed, cartoons drawn, and more than once walls were daubed with protest slogans. This multicolored debate about the city is the theme of this book. In it, René Erven examines how the great urban changes took shape and how they were subsequently received by the people of Eindhoven. René Erven is coordinator of Architectuurcentrum Eindhoven and has organized numerous debates about Eindhoven's urban development over the past 15 years.