Hoorn, TOREN | Hoorn is proud of TOREN

In Hoorn, construction is in full swing on residential complex TOREN, which consists of a low-rise and a 20-story high-rise. The development and construction are in the hands of the Scholtens Group. The low-rise is almost finished, says director Guido Scholtens, the high-rise is beginning to take on imposing forms. "Since we have to be economical with our land, going up is a great alternative," he says.

According to Scholtens, TOREN is an ambitious and dynamic building. The fact that it is 55 meters high will undoubtedly have raised eyebrows, he says. But as the tower takes more and more shape, he sees pride among the people of Hoorn in particular that such an impressive structure is being realized. "In designing TOREN, the architect was guided by the history of Hoorn as a VOC city. It has the appearance of warehouses from that time and you can see the VOC colors in it." For the Scholtens Group, he indicates, it is also a special project. "We have not gone to 55 meters before."

Calculation to the millimeter

Scholtens notes that these kinds of heights take some getting used to for many people. "The definition of high-rise is different for everyone. One person thinks three stories is already high, another thinks 10 and yet another thinks 20 stories. But since we have to be economical with our land, up is a fine alternative. That realization will take time to sink in. We have also noticed this here in Hoorn. Fortunately, we soon had the support of the city council." For TOREN is now getting higher floor after floor, he says. "The tower will be constructed of cast concrete in combination with wide slab floors. Next to it, then, is the low-rise building. That will be ready around Christmas, while completion of the tower is expected after the summer of 2020. Furthermore, there is an underground parking basement with bicycle storage with a courtyard garden on the roof." Scholtens calls a special aspect the fact that the foundation is at two different depths. "It turns out that when the building is finished, the tower will have sunk some more in relation to the low-rise. This means in terms of dimensions that you have two levels to measure from. That's math down to the millimeter."

Good communication

A total of 209 homes in 140 different types will be built in TOREN. Some of these have been sold to investor Vesteda. When designing the house plans, we looked at how they could be laid out as optimally as possible, says Scholtens. "You link that to the architect's design and, of course, you also take consumer wishes into account. All that has quite an impact on the construction. Among other things, that means a lot of consultation, including with the architect, something that is going fine. Good communication, both in preparation and during construction, is very important for planning anyway. So we set up the preparation in a lean way. Of course, some things are still not going as planned. For example, we had to move a water pipe and the toppling of a piling rig affected the work sequence. We solve this together by thinking with each other. The municipality also has a positive role in this. We now notice that more and more people, as construction progresses, start to see the specialness of the project."