Jeans as insulation
Marga Klompé Building in Tilburg by Powerhouse Company
Wood and grey natural stone form an unusual combination on the facades of the Marga Klompé Building. © Sebastian van Damme
The building contains a large lecture hall, 13 seminar rooms, and self-study areas for around 1000 students. The architectural firm Powerhouse Company has managed to incorporate all of these features into a compact cube on the university campus on the outskirts of Tilburg. The Marga Klompé Building has a floor area of 33 x 33 m and four storeys. The building is named after Marga Klompé, the first woman to hold a ministerial post in the Netherlands.


The large lecture hall on the ground floor occupies approximately half of the 33 x 33 m floor area. © Sebastian van Damme
Wood inside and natural stone slabs outside
Tilburg University has set itself ambitious sustainability goals. At the same time, its campus comprises many post-war modernist buildings. This inspired the architects to build the Marga Klompé Building out of wood and clad it in a vibrant, grained Portuguese stone facade.
The aim was for the Marga Klompé Building to form a harmonious relationship with the neighbouring Cobbenhagen Gebouw, which was designed by the architect Jos Bedaux. With its shell limestone facade, this early 1960s building continues to define the campus's style to this day. The Cobbenhagen Gebouw is named after one of the university's biggest sponsors in the post-war period, not the Danish capital.


Daylight enters the building through the atrium and aids air circulation. © Sebastian van Damme
Ribbed ceilings for wide spans
The large ceiling spans posed a particular challenge for the timber construction engineers. The large lecture hall on the ground floor extends across the entire width of the building, and spans of over 9 m are also common in the seminar rooms. The ceilings are mostly ribbed constructions made of cross-laminated timber with relatively wide rib spacing. This necessitated thicker, and thus heavier, ceilings, which in turn had a positive effect on sound insulation.


Wooden ribbed ceilings span the large spaces between the walls. © Sebastian van Damme


The natural stone used for the facades comes from Portugal. © Sebastian van Damme
Recycled jeans as insulation material
The planning team made use of the space between the ribs for cable routing and clad the ceiling cavity with wooden slats. The sustainability concept continues behind the scenes, too: the facades are partly insulated with recycled denim and a groundwater heat pump system provides heat. In summer, the building can also be cooled using groundwater. A large photovoltaic system on the roof of the building supplies electricity for the heat pump. The planning team made good use of the large atrium to improve air circulation, which significantly reduced the length of ductwork required for the ventilation system.
Read more in Detail 6.2025 and in our database Detail Inspiration.
Architecture: Powerhouse Company
Client: University Tilburg
Location: Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB Tilburg (NL)
Contractor: BREED Integrated Design
Landscape architecture: Studio REDD
Building services engineering, building physics: Royal Haskoning DHV
Urban planning: Studio Hartzema
























