One of the world’s largest fully demountable cross-laminated timber projects is rising in the Netherlands with Dutch architect the Powerhouse Company building a 12-storey, 40-metre-high 82-unit social housing project in Pendrecht, a suburb of Rotterdam that was fully rebuilt in the aftermath of the Second World War.
Known as “Valckensteyn,” the fully circular adhesive-free building will sit atop the site of a residential flat bearing the same name, which was demolished over a decade ago. According to Stefan Prins, the project’s lead architect, the design aims to “showcase the harmony of concrete stability and wooden innovation—where sustainability meets affordability.”
Wood Central understands that 85% of the building will be made up of timber elements, with a concrete elevator core staggered along the spine:
I would say about 85% of the structure is designed in wood. We designed this project with a concrete ‘base’ table structure. This is to facilitate the change from big open spaces on the ground floor, for bike storage and entrance areas, to the strong repetitive wooden structure on top. Basically everything from the first apartment layer is in wood. For stability, we use a concrete core for the elevator shaft.
Stefan Prins, lead architect for the project.
The building will be made from a range of factory-fabricated cross-laminated timber modules laid on a plinth clad in travertine, a sedimentary rock. These modules are assembled without glue, meaning the building can be demounted rather than demolished at the end of its life.
In addition, the lower storeys have floor-to-ceiling windows, and the flats on the western facade have wide balconies. The modules are fixed to make them easy to demount and reassemble at a new site.
Add one street to every Dutch town to ease the squeeze…
The design comes after the state-owned Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency today revealed that adding a street with 50 homes on the edge of every Dutch town and village would ease the country’s growing housing crisis.
If added to more than 2,100 communities, the move could add 95,000 more units and “make a modest contribution to the housing construction task”, the agency said, NL Times reports. Dutch-based consultant ABF said the Netherlands will have a shortfall of around 400,000 homes in 2024, up from 390,000 in 2023—the third consecutive annual rise.
In recent years, the Netherlands has emerged as one of Europe’s tightest housing markets – especially in the major centres of Amsterdam and Rotterdam – with the social housing wait listing now reaching 15 years in both cities. “The crisis is attributed to factors such as lack of coordination, poor governance of social housing providers, and absence of a human rights approach to housing,” according to the United Nations Human Rights of the High Commissioner.
