OMA . renders: © bitscapes
Eindhoven’s station area, a traffic node with 50.000 daily passers-by that currently lacks identity and a clear spatial organization, is being redeveloped into a new destination in the city centre. Functioning as inner city traffic junction, the site has the potential to become a dynamic place that connects multiple transportation networks and provides attractive living, working and transit spaces. E’con, a residential tower of 72400 m2 including 35450 m2 of apartments, a hotel, office and retail spaces, a gym and parking facilities, stands in the centre of the area’s new development.
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Between Eindhoven’s central station and Philips Lichttoren, E’con is positioned at one of the main entrances to the city centre. The project consists of two buildings connected by a newly formed outdoor space and made up of three distinct volumes which are designed to respond to the urban setting. The plinth of the building, accommodating a diverse program of stores, cafes, a hotel, offices and residences, reads as a cascading shape from the viewpoint of the station. Inserted between the plinth and the residential tower, the design includes a ring-shaped layer of social housing and short stay apartments. This volume protrudes over the plinth, increasing the intimacy of the public space at the ground level underneath. Atop, the tower of 195 meters forms the highest point in the skyline of Eindhoven and a point of orientation towards the city centre.
E’con accommodates various apartment typologies, including apartments for rent and sale, maisonettes and penthouses and includes multiple green spaces within the building for the residents as well as on the publicly accessible stairs of the plinth. The glass facade of E’con enables an open relationship with the surrounding urban fabric. At the level of the plinth, the transparency of the frontage visually prolongs the connected outdoor open space into the lobby space of the buildings. E’con brings a new destination and meeting place to the city centre of Eindhoven and reflects Eindhoven’s ambitions as technology center in the region, international Brainport and Design Capital.
