Sustainable mixed-use complex to address housing shortage

Mecanoo has been awarded first prize in a design contest for a new mixed-use complex in Amsterdam, with their winning concept focussing on a green vertical neighbourhood that addresses the city’s shortage of high-quality housing for the city’s young professionals, students and researchers. Comprising 28 floors, the Brink Tower will accommodate approximately 400 new residents, situated in a location accessible from Amsterdam Central Station via the ferry service and forming a connection between the Van der Pek and Overhoeks districts.  

The plans include 120 social rental homes, 30 care homes, a local meeting space and more than 250 rental properties, with retail facilities contained within the tower’s plinth. In addition to investments in social quality and the health of future residents, the technical concept of the high-rise is sustainable, with the EPC score of less than zero achieved through the combination of numerous PV cells on the roofs, terraces and facades, together with additional sustainability measures. So-called polder roofs enable rainwater to be stored, which can be reused during the growing season to water rooftop gardens. Efforts are also being made to achieve sustainable mobility through the provision of electric shared cars and bicycles.

The tower has been designed to allow as much interaction as possible between all residents from the different housing types, as well as the existing inhabitants of the surrounding area. Mecanoo says, “The Brink Tower will soon become a green, sustainable and vibrant vertical neighbourhood, with a great diversity of homes that will accommodate a diverse group of people who will be able to live, work, study, do business and relax in a pleasant way.”

Lucy Nordberg
TenderStream Head of Research

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