The Hague – capital of the province of South Holland, home to the king, known for its beautiful Binnenhof – is experiencing housing shortages. In order to tackle this, high residential towers are going to be built around the stations Hollands Spoor, The Hague CS and Laan van NOI.
The new towers will be the highest buildings in the Hague, drastically changing the city’s skyline. Their expected height is between 140 to 150 meters, but as of yet there is no limit. This is the only option – says Alderman Boudewijn Revis – because the Commission doesn’t want to build any more plots of land.
Housing shortages in the Hague
Once upon a time, the city provided 460,000 people with homes. That number has grown to a whopping 535,000 in the last 20 years. By 2040, the number residents in the Hague is expected to reach 627,000. In its current state, the city simply cannot house this many people.
In order to achieve the goal (7700 – 11,500 new homes), construction of these towers must begin in 2020, with around 2500 homes being created every year.
What on earth is happening to the landscape of the Netherlands?
Interesting that this is all happening at the same time as Rotterdam redevelopments! Seems like all the big cities are expanding…upwards. What city is going to be next?
How do you feel about tall towers being built in the Hague? Do you love all these new eye-catching skyscrapers popping up in the biggest Dutch cities – or do huge (and we mean really huge) changes make you queasy? Let us know in the comments section!
Finally! I don’t mean that they should torn down all these beautiful old houses, but they could build taller buildings instead of those new, ugly&small apartment blocks. They should match the city style though
The small apartment blocks are not ugly. High rise towers are ugly and promote lack of social interaction, cohesion, and loss of community. These things are important, and none of the designs shown show respect for these principles, nor do the designs on former industrial sites show that they will use the existing buildings to show respect for the area’s industrial history.
Hey! Their expected height is between 140 to 150 meters, but as of yet, there is no limit.
Humans dont adapt well to high rise living. It is unnatural, lonely and antisocial. Hi-rises encourage a narcissistic attitude to the rest of the city. The opportunities to meet neighbours are limited to uncomfortable lift encounters. One notices that people with money dont choose to live that way – except for the super-rich who have a high-rise flat in town at a prestigious address, but escape as soon as they can to a real house in the country. Coercing ordinary people—and especially those with children—into hi-rise ghetto apartments is a particular form of modern cruelty. These are the slums of two decades time. Of course architects push them, as they get huge fees for essentially repetitive floor designs. And developers make mega buck profits on relatively small sites.