KAAN Architecten Packs Social Housing and Offices into a Timber Matchbox at the Edge of Eindhoven's Strijp-S

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This article covers topics related to Architecture, Landscape Design. In Eindhoven's former Philips district, a demountable post-and-beam timber block stacks 36 social rentals over offices around a shared garden.

In Eindhoven's former Philips district, a demountable post-and-beam timber block stacks 36 social rentals over offices around a shared garden.

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UNI Editorial published Blog under Architecture, Landscape Design on Oct 31, 2026

Strijp-S is where Philips once made light bulbs, radios and televisions. Today it is one of the largest urban regeneration projects in the Netherlands, and most of its new buildings compete for attention against the old factory halls. KAAN Architecten took the opposite approach with Matchbox, a 4,700 m² mixed-use block on a triangular plot at the district's entrance. The building holds 36 social rental apartments, the head office of housing association Trudo, and retail and hospitality at street level. Its frame is timber throughout: glulam posts and beams carrying cross-laminated timber floors, with no concrete superstructure.

The interesting part is not that it is made of wood, since timber mid-rises are now common in the Low Countries. What stands out is how little the building tries to signal that it is made of wood. It has no curved glulam and no showy cantilevers. The frame is a strict, repeating grid, applied evenly to all four sides, and it reads more like an early-modernist factory than a sustainability poster. The name comes from that grid: a dense rhythm of vertical timber lines, like matches packed into a box. It was the first timber complex designed by Vincent Panhuysen and Hannes Ochmann at KAAN, and it shows unusual restraint for a first attempt.

A Grid That Refuses to Perform

Close-up of the facade's dark timber columns and pale beams with slim metal railings, framed by bare winter branches

Straight-on view of the timber post-and-beam facade with stacked balconies, metal railings and chairs in late afternoon light

Close-up of a vertical timber post meeting two horizontal beams above white window frames, lit by low warm sun

Facade of exposed timber columns and beams with balconies stacked above shopfront glazing, seen at dusk over a brick-paved plaza

Corner of the timber-framed facade with white window surrounds, open balconies and bare branches with a few yellow leaves in the foreground

Close view of the timber grid facade with balcony railings beside a pale factory building and overhead pipes

Look straight at the facade and you are looking at the structure. Dark timber columns rise uninterrupted, paler beams cross at each floor, and slim metal railings sit within the bays. The close-up of a post meeting two beams above white window frames is the key image. The joint is plain and legible, with no added trim, and it carries the logic of the whole building.

Sources disagree on the module width, giving either 22 cm or 19 cm. Either way, the point is density. The grid is tight enough to become a texture at a distance and a rhythm up close. Because KAAN gave all four facades equal weight, the block has no back side. On a triangular site seen from several approaches, that is the correct decision, not a stylistic one.

Holding the Corner at Strijp-S

Street view of a timber-gridded block with a planted tower above it and a cyclist passing in soft grey light

Ground-level timber facade with white window frames beside a dark vertical-clad building, with pipes crossing overhead and a pedestrian walking

Sunlit brick-paved passage between a timber facade and an overhead pipe rack, with the chimney rising in the distance

Timber-clad facade along a narrow street beside overhead pipe racks, with a large carved wooden hand in the foreground at dusk

Timber-framed ground floor entrance with a cafe, people seated outside in sunlight beside a large sculpted wooden hand

Row of tall timber columns beside a paved path, with a young birch and a street lamp before the old factory wall

Matchbox completes the wedge-shaped masterplan of Strijp-S, and the street photographs show how it does so: through steady presence at pedestrian height rather than through height. Overhead pipe racks cross the brick-paved passages, and the timber frame sits beneath and beside them as if it had always been part of the industrial plumbing. A row of tall timber columns along a paved path does the job a colonnade would, and it gives the edge a civic scale without any added ornament.

The active base matters here. A café spills onto the sunlit pavement beside a large carved wooden hand, and the ground floor glazing sits deep within the frame. Mixed-use buildings often fail at ground level because the commercial program is an afterthought. Here the base is generous and permeable, and it makes the most of the timber where people can actually touch it.

Conversation with the Philips Inheritance

View from a balcony railing over a brick chimney, apartment blocks and a tree-lined road under an overcast sky

View through a dark steel-framed factory window onto the timber galleries and cladding across the courtyard on an overcast day

Tower with planted balcony boxes rising above an old pipe bridge overgrown with grasses, beside a pale industrial building on an overcast day

Timber-clad block with open stair landings beside a planted balcony tower and a brick high-rise, under a grey autumn sky

Corner of a timber-framed office block with recessed balconies, young birch trees and a cargo bike in the foreground

The best photograph in the set may be the one taken through a dark steel-framed factory window, looking across at Matchbox's timber galleries. It makes the lineage obvious. The old window's mullions and the new building's posts share the same disciplined repetition, separated by a century of technology and a complete change of material.

Next door, the 70-metre Trudo Tower carries its planted balcony boxes above a grass-covered pipe bridge, and a brick chimney rises in the background of several views. Matchbox does not compete with either. It is the quiet partner in the composition, and the district benefits from at least one building that understands background is a role, not a failure.

The Shared Courtyard Garden

Timber-framed courtyard with stacked walkways and steel railings around a bare tree in a planted bed, under overcast daylight

Courtyard elevation of stacked timber balconies and railings around a planted bed, with a distant tower against a cloudy sky

Timber-framed courtyard with open walkways and a multi-stemmed tree in a planted bed, a person crossing the upper deck

Courtyard tree in fresh spring leaf in front of timber columns, galleries and a white industrial facade

Timber balconies and glazed doors above a raised planting bed with drip irrigation lines and a wooden deck step

Offices and apartments wrap a communal garden, and the timber frame turns inward here as stacked open walkways with steel railings. A multi-stemmed tree stands in a raised planted bed at the center. In winter it is bare branches against grey sky; by spring it is in fresh leaf in front of the galleries. The courtyard is small, but the walkways overlook it from every level, so it serves as a shared visual commons as much as a garden.

The detail shots are honest about maintenance. Drip irrigation lines run through the raised beds and a timber deck step meets the planting. These are not idealized renderings of greenery; they show a garden that someone will have to look after. For a housing association client like Trudo, that practicality is part of the brief.

Living on the Galleries

Narrow timber balcony walkway between slender columns, with a galvanized steel railing and brick balconies glimpsed at the far end

Empty upper floor room with exposed timber ceiling and column, glazed doors opening to a balcony and a brick chimney beyond

Continuous balconies run along the facades, and the narrow walkway between slender columns shows what they are like to occupy: a timber floor, a galvanized rail and a long perspective framed by the structural rhythm. An unfurnished upper room shows the ceiling left as exposed timber, a column standing free, and glazed doors opening onto the balcony with the chimney beyond.

For social rental housing this is a meaningful upgrade. Residents get outdoor space and visible structural timber, qualities usually reserved for higher-end developments. The grid that gives the exterior its discipline also gives each unit a direct, legible relationship to the outside.

Inside Trudo's Timber Headquarters

Atrium looking down past a glulam column to open desks, with woven globe pendants and a leafy branch in the foreground

Pale timber staircase with steel balustrades beside plum-colored cabinetry, two blurred figures climbing under a woven pendant lamp

Double-height lobby with a glowing spherical pendant, timber column, reception desk and potted plants, a blurred figure passing in front

Timber staircase with steel balustrade rising past a wooden wall, a blurred person climbing under daylight

View through a deep red-framed glass opening into a timber atrium, with a person walking past a potted tree

The office floors, which house Trudo's own head office, open around an atrium where glulam columns stand among open desks under woven globe pendants. A pale timber staircase with steel balustrades connects the levels beside plum-coloured cabinetry, adding one of the few strong colour notes in the project. The double-height lobby, with a glowing spherical pendant and a reception desk set against a timber column, sets a domestic tone more than a corporate one.

It is significant that the client chose to occupy the building it commissioned. A housing association that works from inside a timber frame, above its own tenants, is making a statement about the standard it expects of its housing stock, and that statement carries more weight than any brochure.

Plans and Drawings

Site plan drawing showing the building footprint in solid black among surrounding blocks and streets, with a bus stop symbol and a city center direction marker

Masterplan drawing showing a rectangular building with a central courtyard beside a square block and a curved tree-lined avenue

Ground floor plan drawing showing a bike parking area, a core of service rooms and a café with outdoor tables

Level 1 floor plan drawing showing open desk clusters around a central core, meeting rooms and two stair voids

Level 2 floor plan drawing showing desk groups, meeting tables and a kitchen counter around a central stair core

Level 3 floor plan drawing showing rows of small units flanking a central courtyard with a tree

Section drawing showing a seven-storey frame with an internal stair, office floors below and a tree beside neighboring towers

Section drawing AA cutting through a seven-storey block, showing a central atrium tree, stepped lower volume and basement bike storage

Section drawing BB showing a tall stair and lift core beside a planted atrium, with bicycles parked at the lowest level

East elevation drawing of a gridded glazed facade with ground-floor café tables, a street tree and neighbouring slab blocks

North elevation drawing of a repeating framed window grid with a rooftop pavilion, outdoor seating and a planted podium roof beside it

South elevation drawing of a fully glazed facade with a central atrium tree visible, flanked by street trees and outdoor tables

West elevation drawing of the gridded facade with figures on balconies, a parked car and cyclist at street level beside a green roof

Wall section drawing at 1:50 showing floor slabs, beams, columns and roof edge across four levels of the building

Elevation diagram shaded in three tones to show housing, office and hospitality programs stacked across the gridded facade

The drawings explain the vertical layering. Bike parking, service rooms and the café occupy the ground floor. Open office floors on levels 1 and 2 cluster desks around a central stair core. From level 3 up, rows of small apartments flank the courtyard and its tree. Sections AA and BB show the atrium tree rising through the block, a stepped lower volume, and bicycle storage at the lowest level. The colour-coded elevation diagram makes the logic clear: housing, offices and hospitality sit within one uniform grid, and the facade does not change to announce any of them.

The 1:50 wall section is the drawing to study closely. It traces slabs, beams, columns and the roof edge across four levels, and it shows how few distinct elements the system requires. That economy is what lets the cladding come off and the CLT and frame components go back to the factory at the end of the building's life.

Why This Project Matters

Matchbox was built CO₂-neutral and qualifies for the Dutch MIA and Vamil sustainability schemes. It meets national requirements for structural safety, acoustics and fire safety in timber, and it is designed for disassembly. Architects, contractor Stam + De Koning Bouw and engineers ABT worked together from the first sketches, and that early integration is the less visible reason the grid looks so effortless. None of these credentials appear on the facade, and that is to the project's credit.

The broader lesson is that timber construction does not need to look like an experiment. KAAN has shown that a demountable post-and-beam system can deliver social housing, offices and a café at urban density, in a historic industrial district, with the calm authority of the factory buildings around it. If timber is going to replace concrete at scale, it will need ordinary, repeatable buildings like this far more than it needs another set of landmark experiments.

Matchbox by KAAN Architecten, Strijp-S, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Area: 4,700 m². Completed: 2026. Photography: Sebastian van Damme and Jeroen Verrecht.

About the Studio

KAAN Architecten

Official website of KAAN Architecten, one of the studios behind this project.

kaanarchitecten.com

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