Inside Amsterdam’s most unusual skyscraper: Blending city life with landscape

The Greener Space
May 1
3 min read

Updated: May 5

Valley MVRDV skyscraper in Amsterdam with vertical gardens and green facade — © Ossip van Duivenbode

In the bustling heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas district, an area known for its glass towers and business-focused urban planning, rises a building that breaks the mold and rewrites the narrative. Valley, designed by the Dutch firm MVRDV, is a vertical ode to nature. But it’s more than a building that “looks” green; it’s an urban ecosystem, merging architecture, landscape, technology, and quality of life in one bold gesture.

A New Model of Urban Mixité

Valley spans 75,000 square meters and accommodates an astonishing variety of functions: offices, residences, shops, dining, cultural spaces, and public areas all coexist within a single architectural organism. This hybrid program is not merely a functional choice but a true declaration of intent: to create a vertical city that is accessible, alive 24/7, reducing the need for commuting and encouraging greater human interaction. At the heart of the project lies the “valley”, a central green corridor that weaves its way between the towers, accessible to the public via monumental stone staircases. It’s a space that creates a natural, landscape-inspired environment within the urban context — A nearly symbolic gesture: placing both people and nature back at the center of one of the city’s most impersonal districts.

A Vertical Ecosystem

The project’s most iconic feature is undoubtedly the vertical landscape that envelops the buildings. In collaboration with landscape architect Piet Oudolf, MVRDV developed a planting strategy that is not just aesthetic, but functionally ecological.

More than 271 trees and shrubs and around 13,500 smaller plants from 220 different species were selected based on sunlight exposure, wind conditions, temperature, and ease of maintenance. Lush vegetation dominates the lower levels, while lighter species grow progressively as one ascends the towers. Insect hotels, birdhouses, and bat boxes are discreetly integrated into the architecture, aiming to restore biodiversity in a densely built urban environment and foster a new balance between nature and the city.

Technology in the Service of Sustainability

Valley is not only green, it’s also smart. The entire building was designed using advanced digital tools, enabling a level of precision and control rarely seen in a project of this complexity: Custom software ensured that each apartment received natural light and views, optimizing the towers’ irregular forms; An automated system manages plant irrigation; Environmental sensors and smart technology monitor real energy usage, adjusting ventilation, lighting, and heating in real time based on occupancy. On the certification front, Valley achieved “BREEAM-NL Excellent” for its commercial areas and scored 8/10 on the GPR Building Scale, demonstrating high performance in energy, environment, health, usability, and future value.

Engineering and Digital Craftsmanship

The project also stands out for its exceptional engineering complexity. The towers feature fragmented volumes and large cantilevers, eleven of which seem to hover in mid-air. These daring forms were made possible thanks to special steel components integrated into the concrete structure, the result of meticulous detailing. The natural stone façade is made up of over 40,000 tiles of varying sizes, laid according to a pattern that appears random but was actually generated by a custom algorithm, turning the envelope into a geological mosaic.

“An oasis in the stone desert of Zuidas” - Bernard Hulsman

Valley: The Future of Urban Architecture?

MVRDV, long known for its experimental urbanism and focus on sustainability, offers with Valley a built and tangible vision of a possible future. A future where nature, technology, and urban density are no longer at odds, but converge into a single architectural form.

“An oasis in the stone desert of Zuidas,” as Bernard Hulsman wrote in NRC Handelsblad, a project that challenges the very notion of the skyscraper as a cold and distant symbol of economic power.

In a world in search of new ways to live better and more responsibly, Valley is not just a piece of architecture. It’s a message.