Tree House

Located beside Rotterdam Central Station, Tree House rises 130 metres across 38 storeys to bring together offices, homes, public amenities and landscaping at one of the city's most active urban crossroads. More than a tower, it is a vertical extension of the city itself – combining work, living and shared public life into a single connected environment that generates activity at every level.

The building sits within Rotterdam Central District, a major urban transformation currently delivering 4,000 new homes, 100,000 m² of office space and a wide range of amenities across one of the city's most strategically connected neighbourhoods. Tree House is conceived as a landmark within this regenerating district, anchoring its western edge at the station while reinforcing the ambition to create a dense, vibrant urban quarter where living, working and leisure come together.

At street level, the design responds directly to what was already there. Four centenarian plane trees on the site are celebrated and retained, while a stepped public landscape carries life from west to east through the base of the building, connecting the station to the district beyond. Urban ecology extends upward from this ground: planted terraces, roof gardens, integrated solar energy and rainwater retention are woven into the architecture not as surface gestures, but as its defining character, shaping warmth, identity and environmental performance in equal measure.

Together, these qualities position Tree House as more than a mixed-use development. It is an argument for a more sustainable and human-centred model of urban growth – one in which a single building can serve as both landmark and living ground, and where density, ecology and public life are not competing forces, but the same idea expressed at different scales.