Vredeoord transforms a former Philips office campus in Eindhoven into a green and family-oriented residential neighborhood where landscape forms the foundation for everyday life. Designed by BURO LUBBERS, the project combines landscape urbanism, public space design and architectural supervision into a coherent vision for contemporary urban living.
The neighborhood offers generous space for walking, cycling, playing and spontaneous encounters. Cars are placed in the background, while shared outdoor spaces, sustainable mobility and collective initiatives strengthen social cohesion. The development accommodates a diverse mix of social housing, owner-occupied homes and self-build projects, creating an inclusive community for different generations and lifestyles.
A strong landscape framework
Green, child-friendly, sustainable and social: these principles guided the design from the outset. The ambition was to create a neighborhood that offers the qualities of living in a landscape while remaining embedded within the city of Eindhoven.
Approximately 300 homes are organized within a robust green framework that provides both identity and flexibility. Existing green structures were strengthened and expanded to form tree-lined edges and broad beech hedges that define the neighborhood and create recognizable entrances. At the same time, the framework allows for phased development and architectural diversity.
The neighborhood is reconnected to the surrounding urban fabric through pedestrian and cycling routes, transforming a formerly closed site into an integral part of the city. Access roads enter the neighborhood from the edges, but the central area remains largely car-free. Parking is carefully integrated within green corridors, while shared mobility solutions reduce the need for parking spaces and free up room for landscape and public life.
At the heart of Vredeoord lies the Promenade, a 400-metre-long car-free public space running from east to west. The Promenade functions as the social backbone of the neighborhood, connecting residential clusters, community facilities and shared outdoor spaces. Play elements, seating and lighting are integrated into the design, creating a vibrant environment for everyday use as well as neighborhood events.
Perpendicular to the Promenade is the Green Dreef, a landscape corridor that combines water management, ecology and recreation. Its lower elevation allows for rainwater retention and infiltration, while natural vegetation and informal play opportunities establish a strong connection to the wider green network surrounding Eindhoven.
Play, play and more play
The design of the public realm reflects the child-friendly and community-oriented character of Vredeoord. A carefully designed hierarchy of outdoor spaces enables children to explore their environment independently and safely as they grow older.
The first step beyond the private garden is formed by widened shared lanes between the residential plots. Rather than functioning as service alleys, these collective spaces encourage interaction between neighbors and provide room for informal activities such as outdoor dining and play.
From there, children move into the network of car-free streets and passages that connect the neighborhood. The Promenade offers a wide variety of opportunities for movement, play and social interaction. Distances are marked in the pavement, playful lighting creates memorable moments and flexible open spaces accommodate both daily use and larger community gatherings.
For adventurous play, the Green Dreef provides a completely different experience. Designed as a natural landscape with water, native vegetation and informal routes, it invites children to explore, build dens, observe nature and engage directly with the landscape. Bridges, decks and gentle transitions to the water create opportunities for discovery while maintaining a safe environment.
Social and sustainable housing
The architectural vision reinforces the landscape framework of Vredeoord. Homes are designed with careful attention to corner conditions, materiality and sustainability, while maintaining a strong relationship with the public realm.
A key objective was to encourage social interaction between residents. All terraced houses include verandas that act as transitional spaces between private and collective domains. Planting and climbing vegetation provide privacy while maintaining visual connections with the neighborhood.
Sustainability is embedded throughout the development. All homes are equipped with solar panels, and the neighborhood has been designed to accommodate future collective energy solutions. Shared mobility, collective landscape maintenance and community initiatives further strengthen the social and environmental resilience of the neighborhood.
By placing landscape at the center of the design process, Vredeoord demonstrates how urban development can foster social interaction, biodiversity, climate resilience and quality of life simultaneously. The result is a neighborhood where landscape is not an addition to the urban fabric, but its primary organizing principle.
Data
Landscape architecture: Buro Lubbers
