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.
The new Bunker complex is a hybrid of form and function, set in a beautiful park that enhances the entire complex.’
Life in the park
Life in the park
In 2015, a competition was held to find a suitable redevelopment plan for De Bunker, the former student center of Eindhoven University of Technology. Working with RED Company, Being Development and Delva LA, we came up with a vision for a mixed-use development featuring a new 100-m-high residential tower in a leafy green landscape. The Bunker Park is a vital element in our design, strengthening one of the three green axes that characterize the city. Generous and publicly accessible, the park boosts the quality of life for residents and the local community. The greenery around (and on) our building also contributes to ‘rainproofing’ Eindhoven, while providing space for native plants to flourish.
Adapting the formula
Bunker
Bunker Tower
Rooms and views
The Brutalist character of Maaskant’s Bunker calls for a strong approach in designing an addition.’
Variations on a theme
Variations on a theme
We avoided the usual solution for new additions to old buildings, which is to create a marked contrast between old and new. Instead, we embarked on a kind of architectural homage to Maaskant’s building, echoing the design language he used. Noting Maaskant’s love of perspectival effects and the asymmetry of his original design, we opted for a tower that presents a varying profile depending on where the viewer is standing. On one side it appears smooth and straight; on the other, stepped and sloping. It adds a vertical emphasis to a horizontal design – our ambiguous tribute, if you like, to an architectural enigma.
Ground floor
The tower
The Bunker marks an important period in the history of postwar architecture.’
Cast in concrete
A new landmark with roots in the past
