The Dutch Mountains Veldhoven

Work environment of the future
The intended location for the development of The Dutch Mountains offers excellent preconditions for the establishment of facilities and knowledge-intensive companies. However, this assignment goes much further than the development of space for office-like functions. For knowledge-intensive companies it is of great importance to be able to offer an attractive, inspiring work environment to knowledge workers in which they feel comfortable and in which development and exchange of knowledge is encouraged. The challenge for TDM is to realize a working environment that is also a valuable living environment. A living environment in which not only work, but also a lot of attention is given to meeting, contemplation, relaxation and physical health.

Why will The Dutch Mountains be a nice place to work in?
First of all, good accessibility. In addition to a good connection with the national road network and the HOV network, an attractive parking facility with more than sufficient capacity is for example also provided.

The second aspect is the rich range of facilities that allow working to be combined with other everyday activities, such as eating, shopping and relaxation. The Dutch Mountains will function as a small village ("smart village") with restaurants, a cafe, fitness, childcare, supermarket, exhibition space, etc. There may also be accommodation for short and longer stays. Companies like ASML have indicated that they have a great need for this to accommodate their visitors and temporary staff. Most facilities will be publicly accessible and also open outside office hours. This means that employees of companies on adjacent sites can also make use of these facilities, but also the well-informed highway passers-by. This creates an attractive urban bustle on the grounds of The Dutch Mountains, both during the day and in the evening. In addition, the support of these facilities will also increase. The combination with a hotel facility offers many extra opportunities for this.

Characteristic to The Dutch Mountains, and perhaps its most important facility, will be a specially designed inner garden, shielded from the sight and sound of the highway. This garden, in fact a small park of more than one hectare, offers the opportunity for short walks, spontaneous meetings and individual contemplation. In addition, it expresses collectivism and a sense of place.

The Dutch Mountains will also become a working environment with a distinctive spatial quality. A special and spectacular building with its unique signature will appear here. A building with nice workplaces and facilities, but also a building that users can identify with; a workplace to be proud of!

Spatial concept
Instead of a series of separate building volumes in the open field, a single building volume was chosen, in which several companies will be housed amid the shared facilities. This has the advantage where all facilities are easily accessible and accessible for all companies, so that better use will be made of them. The building also explicitly offers space to smaller companies for whom having a private building with private facilities is not an option. Joining forces also offers the possibility to make an architectural gesture of size. Instead of individual expression on a limited scale, companies become part of something much larger from which they can derive identity from.

The building volume is not in the middle of the site, but describes the edges of the location and thus encloses a green outdoor space. It is precisely this private, hidden character that gives a lot of quality to this outdoor space. This is in contrast to a conventional arrangement in which the green space around the buildings is dominated by the presence of the highway.

The building is created to excel in horizontality. This horizontal character is in a certain sense the spatial translation of a knowledge-intensive work environment where cooperation and exchange are central. In a tower-like volume, the interaction between the floor areas is more limited and with it also the interaction between departments and companies themselves. The building volume that is created is 440 meters long. Instead of competing with the tallest buildings in the world, this "landscraper" can be effortlessly incorporated into a new generation of tallest buildings in the world.

The heads of the landscraper are raised to heights of 33 and 45 meters. This creates a sculptural building that expresses the security that it wants to offer. In addition, a beautiful scenographic experience is created from the highway, whereby the position of the heads in relation to each other is constantly changing and the building appears to be moving.

Parking b
The parking facility consists of two layers, the bottom of which is approximately 1.5 meters deeper. The facility is made up of two loop-shaped parking strips (16 meters wide) that run along the edges of the location. The maximum capacity is approximately 1500 places. The main entrance is on the Kempenbaan side. The northern entrance can be reached via a parallel lane or via Julianastraat. The entrances are situated as close as possible to the ramps. This parking structure makes it possible to combine the advantages of a central parking facility (capacity sharing) with the possibility to park under your own company. The parking levels are largely illuminated with daylight and naturally ventilated. The parking facility is surrounded on both the outside and the inside by a ground body that hides the cars from view. This also creates a green base for the glass building above.

Park

A spacious but no less intimate park is enclosed by earth embankments and buildings and therefore protected from noise. This park, 13,000 m2 in size, offers opportunities for relaxation and meeting for employees and hotel guests. The park also has a function for buffering rainwater and as a result will regularly change its shape. This can optionally be combined with a biological water treatment, a gray water supply and a (secondary) fire extinguishing water supply.

Lobby b
The lobby is located at an altitude of 4.5 m above ground level (with an area of over 16,000 m2). The entrances and receptions of the companies above are located here. Here are also the facilities of the complex. Examples are restaurants and conference rooms, a fitness room, an indoor swimming pool, a supermarket and an exhibition room. In addition, an information center and a "Brainport Experience Center" are being considered. All facilities are adjacent to the green inner area. Overhanging balconies give access to the park from the lobby.

[b Workspace / hotel
The sculptural building volume (more than 30,000 m2) is formed by office-like functions, laboratories and hotel rooms. The number of companies to be established and the way in which the space is parceled out is flexible. The heads of the building lend themselves well to the accommodation of larger companies, while the middle part is particularly suitable for smaller companies and startups. All work floors and hotel rooms have a view of the park and the city.

Roof
The roof acts as the deck of a ship. It connects the underlying program and forges it together into one sculptural object. From the deck there is a view of the building and the inner garden, but especially of the surroundings. With a maximum height of 45 meters, a spectacular viewpoint of the city will be created here. The reward for a climb to the top is the sky restaurant; the highest in the region. The roof is accessible from every work floor and hotel floor and can therefore also provide escape options in the event of an emergency.

Brainport Experience Center
Runport will not only become a working environment, but also a place where visitors and residents of the Eindhoven region can get to know the Brainport phenomenon in an exciting and interactive way. The Brainport Experience Center is also the showcase of the "smartest region in the world". Here, companies from the region can present themselves and show their latest innovations. It will also become an important meeting place for business visitors to the region. The Brainport Experience Center will be located primarily at the lobby level and may, for example, consist of "infotainment" attractions such as a Brainport ride, a Livelab and a Future room. But the rest of the building will also be part of the Brainport experience. For example, the building can function as a field lab for innovative building and energy technologies, the garden as a test environment for Brainfood and the companies established here can provide guided tours.

Sustainability
The starting point is to create a building with maximum self-sufficiency. To this end, cycles in the field of energy, water, waste and materials are closed in the building. The diagram below gives an overview of the measures that can be taken.