Stefano Boeri Architetti has released a video documentary of Trudo Tower, the first Vertical Forest in social housing in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Seven years after the inauguration of the world-famous Bosco Verticale in Milan, Stefano Boeri Architetti has presented the very first social housing Vertical Forest in the world. Built in the city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the project has been named the Trudo Vertical Forest.  

Stefano Boeri Architetti is known for its several types of vertical forests which incorporate greenery elements through façades or main structural components of design, including masterplans - such as Vertical Forests in China, a new Vertical Forest in Egypt, Mexico's first Smart Forest City and Albania's first Vertical Forest Tower in Tirana.

The documentary consists of three episodes in which each of them can be watched here, here and on this link. The miniseries provide an in-depth look at the construction of the first Vertical Forest in Social Housing, inaugurated in Eindhoven in the Netherlands on October 1st.

A 19-storey residential tower, reaching at 70-metre height), the tower contains 135 trees of various species on each of its four facades and 10,000 shrubs and plants of smaller dimensions. The Trudo Vertical Forest hosts 125 apartments all with affordable rents designed to accommodate predominantly low-income users, especially young couples.

Each flat is small in size with less than 50 square metres, but with the extraordinary spatial extension offered by terraces of more than 4 square meters and the natural micro-environment created by the presence on each balcony of 1 tree and 20 bushes. 

Image © Paolo Rosselli

"The Trudo Tower in Eindhoven represents the achievement of a great goal for all of us, namely that of making the Vertical Forest typology of building (something which we are experimenting with in different parts of the world) accessible even for tenants with low incomes; this is to show that living in contact with trees and greenery - and enjoying their advantages - is not the prerogative of rich people but could well become a possible choice for millions of citizens around the world," said the architect Stefano Boeri. 

Image © Paolo Rosselli

"Thanks to the use of prefabrication, to the rationalization of certain technical façade solutions and therefore to the optimization of resources, the Vertical Forest of Trudo achieves economic sustainability, essential element in buildings intended for social housing," said the architect Francesca Cesa Bianchi, partner and project director at Stefano Boeri Architetti.

Image © Paolo Rosselli

The residents (most of whom have already received the key to their homes) have been assigned on the basis of motivation and by drawing lots. 

Thirty homes have been reserved for the socially disadvantaged, asylum seekers, political refugees and people with disabilities. They will all be able to live with an affordable socially advantageous rent (€633,20 per month) in one of the most attractive places in Eindhoven and one which also contributes to the Strijp-S community, the extraordinary urban area that accommodates a unique mix of facilities for living, working and relaxing in a creative surrounding with an imposing, robust and industrial look and feel.

Image © Paolo Rosselli

Being part of this community is entirely coherent with the social value of this intervention, one that must also be measured in terms of urban impact and, in a broader sense, the global scenario of cultural and symbolic values and visions linked to the architectural project. 

The reduction of construction costs is an essential element for the creation of social housing building. All the knowhow and experience acquired by Stefano Boeri Architetti during the construction of the very first Vertical Forest in Milan in combination with the latest generation construction technologies, the prefabrication of the main part of the building, the rationalization of certain technical solutions for the façades and more generally, the optimization of resources related to the project and the construction of the building, have contributed to the reduction of construction costs, as requested by the Sint-Trudo social housing company.

Image © Paolo Rosselli

For aspects related to the design of the organic component of the Trudo Vertical Forest, Stefano Boeri Architetti made use of technical advice provided by the Laura Gatti Studio directed by the agronomist Laura Gatti. 

This partnership had already borne fruit in the creation of the Milan Vertical Forest and other ongoing urban forestation projects and in this case the Gatti Studio also worked closely with the DuPré Groenprojecten studio in Helmond and the Van den Berk nursery in Sint-Oedenrode. 

Image © Paolo Rosselli

The maintenance of the entire complex, including the plants, is collective and managed directly by Sint Trudo while the specific maintenance of the greenery is carried out at considerable heights by a team of flying gardeners.

Image © Paolo Rosselli

The Trudo Tower in figures

70 metres high

19 floors

8 apartments per floor

125 lofts / social welfare housing

1 communal space

135 trees

1,500 bushes

8,500 plants

4 collection tanks for 20,000 litres of rainwater each

Project facts

Client: Sint-Trudo

Stefano Boeri Architetti: Founding partner: Stefano Boeri

Partner in charge and Project Director: Francesca Cesa Bianchi

Project leader: Paolo Russo

Team: Giulia Chiatante, Lorenzo Masotto, Elisa Versari 

Facades landscape design: Studio Laura Gatti

Executive architect: Inbo

Renders: The Big Picture

Top image © Paolo Rosselli

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