Holland Park is an example of low-rise high density suburb location based on the client’s ambitions to create: “A sustainable neighbourhood on a human scale” and “a design as total concept with various choices and possibilities”. The neighbourhood is located at the Bergwijkpark in Diemen- Zuid, easily accessible from the centre of Amsterdam. The area is undergoing a daring transformation from a former office location into a lively sustainable residential area with more than 3.000 housing. The urban plan for Holland Park is from Sjoerd Soeters and is “the next generation” of his former urban plans, after Java Island in Amsterdam and Sluseholmen district in Copenhagen.

The common drive is to use, intensify and enliven public space as much as possible. Though the urbanization is mostly defined by “parcellation” façades and mid-rise buildings, the five towers along the tracks of metro line 53 Gaasperplas, seem to escape the rules of the building blocks. Cruz y Ortiz designs the third tower in a row: Toren Sevilla.

Toren Sevilla is 50 meters high and the volume is divided into partial slender volumes with different heights, leading into a stepped façade that literally lifts the tower into the sky. The apparent symmetry differs subtly, by optimally orienting the balconies to the sun. A clear floor plan of three apartments per floor of approximately 93 m² matches the appearance of the building.

The back of the building, on the side of the metro, is sensitive for sound and shows a similar stepped façade and plain floorto- ceiling windows. The corner apartments have the luxury of a bedroom with two-sided orientation, which gives a great sense of freedom. The client’s wish is a high level of comfort. The façade is designed to be ‘deaf’. In total, Toren Sevilla has fifteen layers, of which thirteen floors with 37 luxury homes. On the ground floor comes a bicycle passage and a gallery.

The tower is elegant and exalted, but also modest with traditional Dutch finish: light-metallic bricks of large format, stacked in vertical tracks, emphasizing the verticality of the building. The bricks were manufactured specifically for this project in consultation with the supplier Hagemeister. Furthermore, all connections are detailed as accurately as possible, to an understandable simplicity and readability of the building.