The Bunker Tower, Eindhoven Apartments, Dutch Residential Development, Architecture Images
The Bunker Tower in Eindhoven
Hugh Maaskant Building in The Netherlands – Dutch Housing design by Powerhouse Company Architects
20 Jan 2023
Design: Powerhouse Company
Location: Eindhoven, North Brabant, The Netherlands
Photos: Sebastian van Damme
The Bunker Tower, Holland
Reviving the Bunker
Hugh Maaskant’s 1970s classic was the original mensa and fraternity building of TU Eindhoven. The students nicknamed it the Bunker given to its brutalist structure. In recent years, however, it had fallen into disrepair, and only narrowly escaped demolition.
Together with developers RED Company and Being Development, we won the 2016 competition set by the University of Eindhoven to decide the Bunker’s future. By adding a residential tower, we generate the extra value needed to fund the painstaking restoration of the original building.
Adding the tower also allowed underground parking, enabling the transformation of the existing parking lot into a public park surrounding the complex as designed by DELVA Landscape Architecture & Urbanism. With its green surroundings and unique residential opportunities, the Bunker brings a new impetus to the whole area and Eindhoven as a whole, as it joins several new architectural landmarks in the city.
A bold solution
Our design daringly unites the new residential tower with the original structure, by adopting the language and materiality of the old Bunker. Rather than resorting to traditional solutions of designing ‘around’ monuments – with either a strict separation or a strong contrast between old and new – we made the new tower a bold and imaginative continuation of Maaskant’s architectural style.
The new residential tower is flanked by the two wings of the original structure, which houses a semi-public café, lobby, and an office space. The base also houses several of the 210 apartments that the tower contains. In three distinct sections, Bunker Tower lifts Maaskant’s design language into new territory, twisting dynamically and becoming progressively lighter and more open as it rises.
‘Bunker Tower reveals so many sides, different vignettes, depending on where you are in the city. And every apartment has different views, despite the repeating floor plan.’
Meagan Kerr, Project Leader, Architect
Layered with light
The tower’s asymmetrical and stepped form again channels Maaskant’s design and presents varying perspectives from different parts of the city. The greater expanses of glass at the top of the tower symbolize the reopening of the previously boarded-up building to the city, and provide wonderful views for the new residents. Adding the tower also allowed underground parking, enabling the transformation of a paved parking lot into a surrounding public park – additions which effectively boost the entire area. Now preserved for the future, the former Bunker gains a new lease of life thanks to the Bunker Tower.
The Bunker Tower in Eindhoven, Holland – Building Information
Architects: Powerhouse Company – https://www.powerhouse-company.com/
Landscape architect: DELVA Landscape Architecture & Urbanism
Clients: RED Company, Being Development
Location: Eindhoven, NL
Size: 32 640 sqm
Status: Completed
Photography: Sebastian van Damme
The Bunker Tower, Eindhoven, NL images / information received 200123
Powerhouse Company on e-architect
Location: Eindhoven, North Brabant, south of the Netherlands
Architecture in The Netherlands
Contemporary Dutch Architecture
Netherlands Architecture Designs – chronological list
Amsterdam Architecture Walking Tours by e-architect
Eindhoven Architecture
Philips Lighting Headquarters in Eindhoven
Design: LAVA, with INBO and JHK
photograph : Jonathan Andrew
Philips Lighting Headquarters in Eindhoven
V Tower
Design: Wiel Arets Architects
Valid Tower Eindhoven
House IV
Design: De Bever Architecten
Eindhoven House
Fontys Sports College Building
Design: Mecanoo
Fontys Sports College Eindhoven
Comments / photos for the The Bunker Apartment Tower in Eindhoven Architecture page welcome
