The Mandelabuurt neighbourhood will be constructed using wood, which is something that went out of fashion in the Netherlands a very long time but which has made a comeback in recent years. The most notable wooden building in the Netherlands is the Haut tower, which is the tallest residential wooden building in the country, standing at 73 metres high.
This impressive structure did feature wood heavily but it was also made using steel and concrete. Building using timber is much speedier than using concrete and other such materials so the new neighbourhood, which will also feature a new primary school and several other structures, will take barely any time to build compared to other projects on the same scale.
We’ll have to wait until 2025 to see this new neigbourhood of wooden homes start to come together and they won’t be ready to live in until a year later but that’s not too long to wait for something so unique! There will be 700 new homes, in which 2,100 people are expected to live, and the council plans to build more wooden, residential buildings in the future.
In fact, they’re aiming for 20% of all new buildings to be made from wood by 2025. We think that the wooden structures will blend nicely with Mandela Park and they’re set to average around 12 metres in height so they’re not going to dominate the landscape, either.