Friday November 8th, Arjen Zaal (VenhoevenCS) and Marc van den Boom (Bouw21) planted the first trees on one of the four roof terraces of Het Platform. An important step towards a truly nature-inclusive building in the centre of Utrecht.

One of the features of the design concept for Het Platform was to create a building that acts as a green “springboard” for plants, animals and people. From the city centre green belt to the other side of the train tracks, where the municipality is also striving for high nature-inclusive ambitions. Het Platform thus makes abundant use of roof gardens, terraces and balcony boxes and green facades. These are not only intended for users of Het Platform, but also provide an attractive view for users and residents of the buildings around it.

VenhoevenCS invited LandLab for the garden designs. The planning concept is derived from the vegetation in the various landscapes of the Utrecht Province: plants inspired by allotment gardens on the 1st floor, estate forest undergrowth on the 3rd floor, orchard meadows on the 6th and a hillside forest on the 8th floor. The plant species are very diverse and specially mixed to ensure optimum conditions for attracting insects. The coming weeks all roofs will be provided with vegetation.

Foto credits: CU2030

Het Platform

Utrecht (NL), 2020