Bunker Tower
Beauty and Brutalism
We transform a well-loved monument to university life – the Brutalist student center known as ‘De Bunker’ – into a vibrant multi-use development by adding a striking new residential tower. For us, the key to the project was keeping the contemporary intervention in the spirit of the original structure, designed by leading postwar Dutch architect Hugh Maaskant. Rather than adding contrast, we studied Maaskant’s design language and repeated the same architectural themes: slanting walls, strong horizontal lines and – of course – stark detailing and rugged materials. Combining old and new, we created a unified, layered design, celebrating and restoring the building’s original glamor.BunkerTower was the BNA Identity and Icon Value Winner in 2023.
The new Bunker complex is a hybrid of form and function, set in a beautiful park that enhances the entire complex.’
Original Orthogonality
Reviving the Bunker
Reviving the Bunker
Hugh Maaskant’s Bunker is a Brutalist classic: a horizontal concrete composition of bold lines, rugged materials, and massive volumes. The original structure of the much-loved Bunker was long the center of student life in the city. Our competition-winning redesign unites the original structure with the new residential tower, by adopting the language and materiality of the old Bunker. Now preserved for the future, the Bunker gains an unexpected new lease of life thanks to the striking Bunker Tower. It allowed us to place all parking underground – freeing up the surroundings to create a surrounding park, designed by DELVA Landscape Architecture & Urbanism – additions which effectively energize the entire area.
Adapting the formula
Bunker
Bunker Tower
We avoided a strict separation between old and new. Instead we made it an imaginative continuation of Maaskant’s architectural style.’
New horizons
New horizons
We took the strong horizontal lines of the old Bunker and stacked them up to create the new tower with its bold verticality. Inside, new residential apartments benefit from sweeping views and simple yet luxurious interiors. The old Bunker, restored and newly protected, houses the offices of a media company and a semi-public grand café. The base also houses several of the in total 210 apartments. In three distinct sections, the tower lifts Maaskant’s design language into new territory, twisting dynamically and becoming progressively lighter and more open as it rises.
Emerged Extension
The tower
A Look Inside the Tower
Layered with light
Layered with light
The tower tapers as it rises, echoing the old Bunker’s sloping walls, asymmetry and stepped form. Its lively and dynamic silhouette has three distinct sections. A greater proportion of glass towards the top makes the tower lighter and more open the higher it gets. The sculptural tower gives the Bunker a new life as a city landmark – starring in countless urban vistas, while also providing great views of the city for residents.
Bunker Tower brings new energy to a whole neighborhood and to the city itself.’
Natural high
Natural high
To match Maaskant’s monumentality, we chose natural stone for the tower façade. We combined it with glass and wood, materials that are also central to his design. The lively rhythm of horizontal bands called for panels all three materials. Some 3000 of these massive stone, wood and glass façade panels were hoisted aloft (but not in high winds!) to create a richly detailed effect.
At the base
Ground floor
The Core Connector
Our design celebrates and restores the old Bunker’s original raw glamor.’
Site plan
Translating the Essence
