Mecanoo's Brink Tower has been granted planning permission to create an energy positive, green, and inclusive neighbourhood in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The studio has announced that construction work is set to begin in mid-October, 2022 in Amsterdam. In 2020, Mecanoo won a competition to design a 90-meter-high mixed-use tower, offering spaces to live, work, do business and relax in a healthy environment.

The project is developed by Belgian company Xior Student Housing and Amsterdam-bsed real estate developers DubbeLL. Mecanoo won the competition with Merosch, Dakdokters, Pim Evers, WeDriveSolar, Van Rossum and Nelissen Ingenieurs.

Envisioned as "a green, sustainable, and vibrant vertical neighbourhood", the tower offers a great diversity of homes which will become an eye-catcher in the Overhoeks district skyline of Amsterdam North. 

Described as "locally rooted, lively, and inclusive", the new tower is aimed to contribute to the development of Overhoeks in a neighbourhood of the future.

The 30,184-square-metre energy positive residential tower consists of 408 homes, of which 266 rental homes in the middle segment, 120 at affordable rent.

Additional components will include a residential care facility, a community centre, a communal roof, inner garden, and commercial functions such as co-working, a bowling centre with restaurant and various smaller retail and catering venues.

The word of "Brink" takes its name from an old Dutch word, meaning that a green open space where people meet. Referencing to the origin of the expression, the design of the tower is shaped around this principle to "bring people together to live together in a healthy, plant-filled" environment. 

Located in the north of Amsterdam, the area is separated from the rest of the city by the waters of the IJ. The Brink Tower lies at the edge of the neighbourhood of Overhoeks, which has seen many new residential developments. 

Just across a canal lies the low-rise Van der Pek neighbourhood. The Brink Tower forms a connecting link between both neighbourhoods, both visually and socially.

The 28-storey tower, accommodating a mixed program, incorporates a commercial plinth, while social housing for different segments consists of the majority of the tower.

"The architecture is stunning and exceptionally sustainable. The lively plinth with catering and local entrepreneurs will become the meeting point of the neighbourhood," said Mecanoo. 

The tower features elegant rounded corners and reaches up to 90 meters high. The side facing Van der Pek neighbourhood has a slender shape with a cascade of green, collective roof terraces and gardens where residents can meet. 

On the other side, the tower is wider, just like the robust adjacent towers of Overhoeks. 

The exterior façade of the Brink Tower is clad in warm red brick, referencing the Amsterdam School architecture of the 1920s that characterises Van der Pek. 

Mecanoo integrates the beautiful brickwork with concrete bands and detailing in the facades, which frame full-height windows all the way to the top on all sides. As a result, the tower emerges as "a green highrise icon" for Overhoeks neighbourhood. 

The Brink Tower is developed to become an energy-positive residential tower, considering its transformative social role and visual presence which lies at its sustainable ambition. 

According to the studio, the tower generates more energy than it consumes thanks to photovoltaics on terraces and facades, wind and more solar energy harvesting on the top roof, and various energy-saving measures including an aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) system. 

The design also takes biodiversity to new levels, not just with its choice of vegetation, but with nests and nooks for birds and insects. As stated by Mecanoo, the Brink Tower shows that even in the city, humanity and nature can co-exist in harmony.

Construction for the Brink Tower is expected to be completed in 2025.

Mecanoo completed the interiors of the new Unilever Benelux Headquarters in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Mecanoo's other tower, The Grace, in The Hague, was approved to begin construction. 

Project facts

Project name: Brink Tower

Architects: Mecanoo

Design: 2019-2020

Realisation: 2022-2025

Developer: DubbeLL - neighbourhood developers

Investor: Xior Brinktoren N.V.

Structural engineer: Van Rossum Raadgevende Ingenieurs

Sustainability consultant: Merosch

MEP, fire safety, building physics consultant: Nelissen Ingenieursbureau

Consultant/realisation roof gardens: Dakdokters

Consultant water retention: Metropolder

Contractor: Cordeel

All images © Mecanoo 

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Mecanoo red brick tower