1/2 The vertical forest in Eindhoven (photo: Rogier van Son).
They live in the middle of Eindhoven, with a lot of concrete around them. Yet on a hot day they have enough cooling on their balconies on the eleventh and thirteenth floors of their residential tower. Jake and David both have an apartment in the vertical forest. “I can say as one of the few that I have a tree at eleven high,” says Jake (27) Aerdts with a laugh.
The Trudo Toren on Strijp-S is a seventy meters high residential tower with eighteen floors, completely overgrown with trees and plants. You get a view over the city and at the same time residents have a tree in front of their window. Even when Jake is inside and looks out, he sees green. “You have a piece of forest on your balcony. Very strange, but beautiful.”
“I have to sit neatly on the balcony.”
In September last year, the first residents moved in. This is their first summer in the tower. “It is unique to live in a new icon of Eindhoven. There are more photographers on the sidewalk than at other buildings. So I always have to stay neatly dressed on the balcony.”
There are already more ‘vertical forests’, but this is the first residential tower worldwide, with forest and social rent. A total of 125 social rental homes. Only after a good motivation letter could you be selected. “It’s affordable. I’m around 620 euros. In other buildings here it is often private rent and then you pay double with the same view. I’m glad I got this chance. It is still unique for the Netherlands and almost for the world. Then it is very cool to live here.”
Jake proudly shows a Donald Duck. This is where the residential tower is, incorporated into a strip. “If it has appeared in the Donald Duck, I can really call it an Eindhoven icon. I was very proud to see my own building again.”
“It’s like I’m playing the piano in the woods.”
David (27) Hordijk is a pianist and composer. He lives on the thirteenth floor. He wants to place his piano on a platform. For concerts he streams. “Then it seems like I’m playing in the woods, while I’m thirteen high in a flat.”
They don’t have to have green fingers. “We can’t do anything about it. Watering all works with sensors.” Of course you can also place green on your balcony, but he thinks this is different. “With a tree you also get the seasons of the year. You don’t get that easily with a plant or a shrub.”
David thinks we’re going to see more of this. “Green gives us peace and at the same time we all live more in cities. I think we should do something about that. I think a tower like this is a very good solution for that. † You live in the city and in the forest. It is built super cool.”
