The government will invest heavily in a new way to tackle the glaring housing shortage: ‘topping up’. Topping up means that one or more floors are added to existing buildings. Eindhoven will be at the forefront of this.
The residents of the lower floors of these buildings also benefit: at the same time as the construction of the extra floors, their homes will also be renovated and made more sustainable. Eindhoven is suitable for this technique because there are many post-war neighbourhoods and because it is a growing city, many additional homes are needed. That is why the government has designated the city as a forerunner.
The Veem building on Strijp-S is the first ‘topped up’ building in the city. In 2021 and 2022, housing association Trudo built 39 homes on top of the Veem. Trudo on the website: “The special design for this so-called ‘topping’ was made years earlier by a London architect. Due to the financial crisis, it was not implemented at the time. This was done more than ten years later, and Het Veem was given its residential function after all.” In September, work will start on topping up the Grijpma flats in Willem Klooslaan in Gestel. There will be one floor on top, accounting for a total of 52 social homes.
Precursor
But more needs to be done to seriously tackle the housing crisis. That is why the municipality has started an investigation together with the Ministry of the Interior and the housing associations. “We have made an initial scan to see where there are roofs with potential to be topped up,” says Mieke Verhees, councillor for Housing, Neighbourhoods, Space and Services. “In Eindhoven we have the task of adding many homes in the existing city. Topping is a promising way to do that and those possibilities exist in Eindhoven.” Rotterdam, Leeuwarden, Ede and Zoetermeer are also participating in the pilot.
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez
