The Bunker Tower Eindhoven apartments, Dutch residential property, Architecture images

The Bunker Tower in Eindhoven

Hugh Maaskant Building in The Netherlands – Dutch Housing design by Powerhouse Company Architects

Finalist for the International High-Rise Award

Design: Powerhouse Company

Location: Eindhoven, North Brabant, The Netherlands

The Bunker Tower Eindhoven Holland

Photos: Sebastian van Damme

Bunker Tower High-Rise Award

Bunker Tower is selected as a finalist for the International High-Rise Award (IHA) 2024. As one of five projects, the jury selected the finalists — representing projects from Asia, Europe, and South America — from a total of 31 high-rise buildings across 14 countries.

We are excited to present our project to both the German and international audience at the upcoming exhibition and award ceremony. Bunker Tower represents a thoughtful and innovative response to pressing urban challenges, while also respecting its architectural heritage.

The Bunker Tower Eindhoven NL

The project addresses the need for housing and urban densification in rapidly growing cities. At the same time, it has breathed new life into the 1970s brutalist ‘bunker,’ transforming it into 3,000 square meters of office space and public amenities, including a Grand Café. This transformation culminated in the building being listed as a historic landmark, showcasing the potential of existing structures to meet today’s housing challenges in the Netherlands.

‘With this high-rise design, we make
a positive contribution to the urban landscape, in line with the increasing focus on sustainable and responsible urban development, both in the Netherlands and beyond.’

Nanne de Ru, Founder, Powerhouse Company

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.

The Bunker Tower Eindhoven Holland The Bunker Tower Eindhoven Holland

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.

The Bunker Tower Eindhoven NL The Bunker Tower Eindhoven NL

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 Bunker Tower Eindhoven Holland

The Bunker Tower Eindhoven

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.

The Bunker Tower Eindhoven NL The Bunker Tower Eindhoven NL

‘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

The Bunker Tower Eindhoven The Bunker Tower Eindhoven Holland

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 Eindhoven The Bunker Tower Eindhoven NL

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

The Bunker Tower Eindhoven The Bunker Tower Eindhoven

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

Dutch Architecture News

Amsterdam Architecture Walking Tours by e-architect

Eindhoven Buildings

Dutch Architecture

Eindhoven Architecture

Philips Lighting Headquarters in Eindhoven
Design: LAVA, with INBO and JHK
Philips Lighting Headquarters Eindhoven
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

Dutch Housing

Dutch Architect

Comments / photos for the The Bunker Apartment Tower in Eindhoven Architecture page welcome