The Pulse of Amsterdam

The City of Amsterdam set high standards for the new development, from the quality of the homes to circularity and sustainability, urban nature, mobility and public facilities. The Pulse meets all these requirements. Until now, the Zuidas location has featured mainly separate office and residential towers. The Pulse blurs these functions and adds leisure and public facilities – while also making space for nature. The development creates a common ground for all the users of the location, from workers, residents and cinema visitors to plants, trees and wildlife. The goal is to bring more life – in every sense of the word – to this corner of the city.

The development consists of two towers – one office, one residential – atop a plinth that joins them and houses the leisure functions. On top of the plinth, and between the two towers, there is an urban forest at a height of 35 metres above the ground, complete with 8-metre-high native species of trees. This space is devoted to nature, and forms part of a green corridor linking the city’s two largest green areas, the Amstelscheg and the Amsterdamse Bos.

The two towers have been designed with the concept of ‘somewhere and anywhere’ in mind. The residential tower, by VMX Architects, illustrates ‘somewhere’: the local qualities of Amsterdam. It channels the architecture of the Amsterdam School with its brick façade and sculptural forms, created by stacked and staggered volumes. MVSA’s office tower, on the other hand, is an ‘anywhere’ icon: the kind of office building you might find in any metropolis, with its sharp profile, gleaming façade and top-of-the-range facilities.

Together, the two towers of The Pulse add a new architectural impulse to the area, which is typified by rectangular blocks. Instead, the towers of The Pulse present two very different yet complementary structures: slim, angular, sculptural and all-sided, adding visual as well as programmatic liveliness to the area.

In line with the aims of the whole development, our office tower is sustainable. We found a way to integrate solar panels into the façade without distracting from the aesthetic appeal of the building, by angling the windows so that the solar panels remain invisible from the ground. This solution also has the advantage of creating natural shade. The angular façade design also avoids creating a wind-tunnel effect on the street below. The design uses a sustainable new material, a composite made from recycled plastic bottles.

The complex will be sustainable in energy terms and will encourage the use of public transport, bicycles and electric vehicles. Homes will vary from affordable rentals to three-storey penthouses, ensuring greater resident diversity in the area. The urban forest not only contributes to biodiversity; it also provides a range of vital ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, heat reduction, storm-water mitigation and air-quality improvement. The Pulse therefore future-proofs the city in several essential ways.