With all key players present, the official groundbreaking ceremony for a new residential building with 116 apartments in the Roombeek district of Enschede was celebrated on Wednesday, December 7, 2022. In attendance were developer and builder Koopman, investor Vesteda, former owner of the textile factory Ted Lanaras, councilor Jeroen Diepemaat, of course Tangram, and many others. Supervisor Pi de Bruijn, who played such a decisive role in the reconstruction of the new neighborhood after the fireworks disaster, was unfortunately unable to attend. This new building was meant to be nothing less than the final “icon” on the historic Roombeek site. Although it only serves a residential function, it is shaped like a sculpture that expresses the important historical moments of the site: the past of the textile industry, still prominently present in the adjacent industrial buildings, but also the fireworks disaster of 2000, which literally left its mark on the entire neighborhood. Both elements are represented in the image of the new building ‘De Weverij’. The facades parallel to the adjacent building ‘TETEM 2’ lean in architecture, image, detail, and materialization on the industrial architectural language with their red variegated brick, regular windows in a large repetition, and setbacks in facade planes. The third, slanted side is a derivative of that… as if distorted and melted by brute force, as if a corner has been cut off… obviously a reference to the fireworks disaster. History creates binding… and binding leads to appreciation and stewardship. This ensures sustainable use: what we love, we maintain. Roombeek has such a history – forever captured in the 5th icon. The intended completion is scheduled for early 2025.
The final icon of Roombeek
