The knowledge centre will be one of the most important parts that will arise at Business Centre Treeport (BCT). The BCT becomes the heart of the European nursery stock industry and this centre becomes the heart of the company area. It is planned in a heart-shaped park with an edge of trees and it will become innovative, circular and sustainable.
The building will become a multifunctional accommodation (MFA), with space for various users. The modular structure allows for different floorplans. This could include a restaurant, exhibition space (nursery stock), flexible office spaces, study rooms, classrooms and laboratories. The ambition is to create a circular building, created using a sustainable wooden construction. In addition, biobased and plant-based materials are used. The relationship with tree cultivation is visible in the large atrium, where there is room for special trees, which are visible throughout the building. The (green) outdoor space will be equipped with test fields, a helophyte filter and a greenhouse and climate chamber.
Sector-related activities
The knowledge centre will be made suitable to facilitate sector-related activities. This includes plant research, vertical farming, research into ingredients, robotisation, energy and biobased construction, soil and water analyses and much more. The knowledge centre has managed to connect with a number of educational institutions prior to construction.
These are: AERES, AVANS, Curio, HAS Green Academy and Yuverta.
Start
Meanwhile the start of construction approaches; the first images of the centre to be built have been fixed in the rendering and with that, an artist impression (both in imagery and video) has been created. With this, it is also time to select a suitable name for this centre. A call was made to come up with proposals for a suitable and strong name for the knowledge centre. From the many submissions, a top 5 was compiled, which could be voted for. As a result, the name Rootz was chosen. Rootz was submitted by various people. Mark Leenaerts of amSURE BV, who also gave an additional explanation of ‘Rootz’ being the abbreviation of ‘Ruimte voor Onderzoek en Ontmoeting met Treeport Zundert’, was the first to coin this name. All names have
already been checked, but this name is now being checked extensively. If the feasibility study shows that we can use this name, a house-style will be created and we will take it from there. And as soon as that happens, Mark can not only count on eternal fame, but will also get something special.
Once again, we would like to thank everyone for their commitment, all the responses, and the effort put into this. This highlighted exactly what BCT stands for: it is created by and for the industry.
