Transformation – new developments and reuse of Philips industries in Eindhoven

The urban renewal plan for Strijp-S includes over 400.000 square meters of program and its final phase should be completed in the year 2020. The share of reused industrial structures is about 150.000 m².

•     Total area: 27 ha
•     Residential floor area: ca. 285.000 m²
•     Dwellings: 2.500 – 3.000
•     Dwelling types: studios, apartments, urban villas and lofts
•     Office floor area: ca. 90.000 m²
•     Retail and culture: ca. 30.000 m²
•     Flexible: ca. 30.000 m²

The idea of Trudo housing corporation is to maintain the industrial atmosphere of the complex, mixing the creative industry with lively functions of gastronomy, bars, culture and housing. This is to be carried out in small scale permeable interventions within the existing big scale structure. The characteristic installation corridor will be maintained with new exciting functions.

Trudo director Thom Aussems criticizes the liveliness of the former urban plan and states that dealing with a place of industrial atmosphere should not be confused with the protection of industrial heritage. It´s a delicate matter. A project can easily go wrong like the reuse of the Witte Dame, he says, where space after renovation became too expensive and therefore not interesting anymore for the cultural avant garde with its lack of capital. The people with the least resources, states Aussems, are the ones who make the place more lively.
Strijp-S should be much more vibrant, creative and industrial than renewal projects like Kop van Zuid (Riek Bakker) and the Hamburg harbor project (Kees Christiaanse). Rather like the Distillery and the Meatpacking District in New York. Can this come true in Eindhoven? Aussems thinks it can, having over 8.000 small creative entrepreneurs in the region, with a turnover greater than the local construction sector. No comparison is made however with Dutch incubator projects (‘broedplaatsen’), such as Amsterdam NSDM wharf. The ambition is definitely there and so are the first creative inhabitants of the area. What the future of this hot spot will be, in terms of gentrification, creativity and real estate development, we´ll witness within the next decade.

One of the most eye-catching buildings in the complex is the Klokgebouw (Clock building). In this structure many activities have started already and several creative firms have rented a studio. Among others, there is an urban skate park called Area51, sports facility Fit For Free, a sports climbing hall and pop music stage Popei. Many cultural events take place, such as the Dutch Design Week and Flux-S. The Popei stage was designed by En-En architects as colored suspended boxes in the main structure, for maximum sound insulation.

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Reuse of Philips factories in Eindhoven (Projetos Urbanos)
www.projetosurbanos.com.br/2010/03/12/reuse-of-phili…ries-eindhoven

Strijp-S
www.strijp-s.nl/
www.strijp-s.nl/downloads/strijps_vakpers.pdf

Klokgebouw
www.klokgebouw.nl
www.klokgebouw.nl/files.aspx?PID=12558&FID=5274

Popei
www.architecten-en-en.nl/projecten/interieur/popei-in-klokgebouw—eindhoven.html
www.architecten-en-en.nl/public/pdf/9/documentatie/0477—popei—ebook.pdf

Flux-S / Dutch Design Week
www.flux-s.nl
www.dutchdesignweek.nl/ddw//download/strijp.pdf

Thom Aussems (Trudo) lectures on reuse of industrial heritage (Dutch language, in 4 parts)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm-8fHafxSw

Open the Strijp-S project in Google Earth
www.strijp-s.nl/downloads/DO%20stedenbouw%20Strijp-S.kmz

In many metropolises there are examples of old infrastructure that have become partially or entirely redundant because of new developments in transport and urbanization. Automatically the question arises of what to do with the leftover structures: Demolish them, or maintain them for different usage?

After demolishing the Boston inner city expressway the whole trajectory was rebuilt underground, during the operation called “the Big Dig”, costing almost $ 15 billion. In São Paulo a design competition was held in 2007 to either demolish or re-use the “Minhocão”, an elevated expressway of almost 3 km. In Paris there is the Promenade Plantée, a garden planted on a railway viaduct that ceased to function as such in 1969. In Rotterdam will shortly arise a new living and recreation area around the old “Hofpleinlijn” elevated railway tracks. And in New York a very special recreation area is being built on the Highline.

Read more:

Slide show of the Highline NY project, both artist impressions and photo´s of the construction site
www.flickr.com/photos/friendsofthehighline/…

Winning project of the Minhocão competition by José Alves and Juliana Corradini, adding a park roof while maintaining the traffic function
www.vitruvius.com.br/institucional/…

Other highlines
www.thehighline.org/newsletters/…

Urban study of the Hofpleinlijn, Rotterdam by DAF architects
http://issuu.com/daf-architecten/docs/hofpleinlijn

[Thanks to Reonald Westerdijk for his info about Highline New York]

Because of urban renewal projects, demolition and the current economic situation, many buildings  in The Netherlands remain empty for a period of time. Sealing off vacant buildings and terrains does not improve the liveliness of the neighborhood and can even provoke a downward spiral. Squatting initiatives that fail to engage culturally and socially in the community also won´t provide a solution.
Cultural project developer Lotti Hesper coordinates several temporary cultural projects in empty lots and buildings throughout The Netherlands. Hereby she has the objective to counter vacancy, to have a positive influence on the real estate value of the property, to let inhabitants and entrepreneurs participate actively in their city and to improve social engagement. Lotti is involved in several activities in the Spoorzone (Railway zone) of Delft, which contains many buildings that will soon be demolished to build the new tunnel tracks. In collaboration with Werkplaats Spoorzone she invited professional and non-professional artists to turn a to be demolished block into a row of Delft Blue inspired artistic manifestations, mingling performance, photography, graffiti and painting.
She manages temporary use of buildings in the Kromstraat (Delft), in cooperation with Vereniging Kromstraat and financed by the municipality and Fonds 1818, to give new creative life to this narrow street in the centre that used to be known for drug traffic and feelings of insecurity around empty buildings. In collaboration with The Hub Rotterdam and The Hub São Paulo, she works on the implementation of a shop that combines many micro-shops at the Nieuwe Binnenweg, a shopping street in Rotterdam where massive vacancy is becoming a problem (it is estimated that one out of five shops is vacant at the moment, between the streets ´s Gravendijkwal and Rochussenstraat).

Lotti was so kind to show me the Spoorzone and the Kromstraat in Delft.

Merten: How do you normally  find new vacant spots with potential for cultural activities?
Lotti: Usually I discover potential project spaces by looking out for them in my surroundings. I like to take my bike and cycle around neighborhoods where I think might be something interesting going on. Sometimes people tell me to take a look in a certain area.

Merten: What happens with a location after such a temporary project has finished?
Lotti: That depends. For example at the Kromstraat, a pop- and culture podium called Ciccionina still continues to be exploited by the same young creative people. After the initial incentive, a low rent was negiotiated with the owner, a combination of a bank, a social housing corporation and the municipality. This way they can stay longer and grow until they can afford a regular rent. Most projects, such as the Spoorzone and Kromstraat, help to define a creative and dynamic image for the area, carried by the community, which remains long after the initial project has terminated or after the buildings have been demolished.

Merten: For whom do you work? Who are your clients?
Lotti: Mostly I manage projects that use community- and cultural subsidies of the municipality and foundations. With those resources I can contract professional artists and other participants. I would also like to work for the (semi) private sector though, such as developers or housing corporations, in order to generate cultural surplus value in urban revitalization projects. I do not want to be a real estate agent who simply combines vacancy with potential users, it is the cultural and social surplus value for the community and the city that interests me.

Delft Blue Buildings – Artwork by Suzanne Liem & Frank Diemel

Delft Blue Buildings – Artwork by Rolina Nell

Kromstraat – Restaurant and fashion workshop

Kromstraat – Restaurant and fashion workshop

Kromstraat – street view in between pop podium and restaurant

Read more:
Lotti Hesper Projectontwikkeling
Video about the Delft Blue buildings at the Spoorzone
Endossa (Hub shop São Paulo)
Leegstand zonder zorgen (documentary)