Nanjing Municipal Government donates You Ning Pavilion to the city of Eindhoven

Project narrative

In 2005, Nanjing Municipal Government committed to donate a Chinese pavilion to the Dutch city of Eindhoven in celebration of their 20th anniversary as twin cities. At the same celebration, Eindhoven donated a park to Nanjing, which finished construction 2011. The construction of the Chinese park in Eindhoven took much longer, mainly due to issues in Eindhoven concerning where to put the park. In 2015, the location of the park was finalized and announced as Strijp-S. The 780-square-meters pavilion was designed by Chinese architect and professor Zhao Chen and the design was translated into Dutch regulations by VAN AKEN, a Dutch engineering and architecture firm. The pavilion would include a Chinese restaurant run by Eveline Wu, serving Sichuan cuisine and featuring tableware from Nanjing. The pavilion was intended to be a meeting place for the Chinese community within Eindhoven, and would feature permanent exhibitions of Chinese and visual art. A groundbreaking ceremony took place at the end of 2015, and construction was expected to finish in May 2021. In October 2019, Eindhoven politicians agreed to provide at least €1.8 million EUR for the construction, with that money being donated from Nanjing. Stam + De Koning Bouw B.V. was the construction company, and Dutch interior design firm B-too designed the interior of the restaurant. Construction was finished by May 11, 2021, but the pavilion remained closed to the public until the opening ceremony during GLOW Festival in November. The pavilion opening ceremony took place on November 21, 2021. At the ceremony, the mayor of Eindhoven and the Chinese Ambassador to the Netherlands announced the pavilion's name: You Ning, "You" referring to friendship, and "Ning" short for Nanjing. Just a year later in November 2022, the Eindhoven city council decided to end the twin city relationship after more than 35 years (twin agreement signed October 1995), citing human rights violations and the oppression of Uyghurs as the reason. In July 2023, the restaurant portion of the pavilion closed due to staffing shortages, but the space continued to be open as an event space.