MARJAN SARAB ARCHITECTURE

NRE Terrain
Eindhoven, Netherlands

2013

 

The NRE terrain is an industrial complex in center of Eindhoven which most of the buildings either have no functions or temporary ones. On 2013 there was a closed competition to design a solution of it. vanHelmond|Zuidam Architecten was one of invited architects.

 

The proposal for NRE terrain does not only propose a plan but involvement and expertise in order to satisfy the level of ambitious. The main ideas behind the design are: energy neutral neighborhood, green, safe and collective.

 

Main ambition is to achieve an energy neutral district. It is obvious in order to establish such goal, a social community is needed which organize energy for the users of NRE. This generation of collective energy aims from the bottom till the top, channeling energy, solar panels, wind turbines. By channeling the energy the areas becomes more interesting since it requires for a multi-functional district; because combination of living (heating) and working (cooling) only is possible solution. In fact, housing is more in need of heating while working is required cooling. The result is that the soil remains balance. Not only this by with use of solar panels and wind turbine the energy consumption of the buildings and public area is managed by this same community district.

 

The investment for this plan comes from market or/and government. The payoff for the investment is a repayment by the users of the site, based on traditional system, and possible sales of energy to the surrounding grids of district. In N years after the investment is paid off the district is completely independent and better investment for the users.   

 

In addition to the energy neutral neighborhood, it is very important to also build a healthy neighborhood, thus use of sustainable materials and techniques, green facades and roofs. And best of all, a combination of all of them: Brainport in practice.

 

The greenery between buildings has a direct effect of higher quality in urban and living spaces and also higher value of individual property in cities. In addition, it drops the temperature in summer days and increase biodiversity.

 

Safe traffic access combines with an efficient traffic flow is always favorable condition for the use of public spaces for residents and users. In this proposal the parking spaces are places around the accessible streets to the neighborhood and leaving the core of the district car-free.

 

The architectural typology of new buildings are inspired and in harmony with the existing industrial buildings which architecturally result into a special neighborhood. The art here is to also give freedom. By deciding the volume of buildings, considering the existing typology, encouraging the relationship, we create a formula to copy the typology till some extends while totally using different material and achieve a unique appearance.