An iconic and unique design that provides connection

In the urban plan of the Municipal Department of Spatial Planning, Entrepot-West was supposed to become a giant closed square across the water. Atelier PRO designed a complex that is a radical correction to this plan, to ensure that the new building could connect to the port area, the water and the city. The design is literally and figuratively 'supported' by a double bridge of the port basin; the one 'bridge' is formed by the Entrepotbrug, the wavy residential building that crosses the port between Borneo and Cruquius Islands, supported by bridge pillars — also the eye-catcher of the whole plan. The other bridge is the Margaret Staal-Kropholler Bridge, a road bridge that connects the Eastern Islands with the Indische Buurt.

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Urban villas, high-rise buildings and historic buildings as part of one plan

Along the Borneolaan and Cruquiusweg, parallel to the port, there are short residential blocks as remains of the square of the Department of Spatial Planning. On both sides of the meandering Entrepot Bridge, urban villas are located in pairs in courts on the quays. A tall residential tower, also designed by atelier PRO, next to the road bridge, the Entrepot-West Water Tower (1991-1997), fixes the entire plan on the dividing line between land and water. Existing older buildings - such as the Customs Building and the gate to the old cattle market along the Cruquiusweg - have been preserved to make the new building fit better into the city.

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