Kop van Oost is located between Sontweg and the Eemskanaal on the outskirts of Groningen city centre. At present, this former harbour is zoned as a residential area. The design contributes to a vibrant development with a wide promenade along the Eemskanaal and a public square. With their glass penthouses, the towers are easily recognisable on the Groningen skyline.
A row of four-storey units connects two slender apartment towers. Independent of the towers, the galleries wind between a row of columns. The entire complex features a transparent ground floor of commercial spaces, while a courtyard with a timber deck accommodates a tennis court, playground and planter boxes with edged seating. Large oval cut-outs admit daylight into the car park below. The apartment complex contains various dwelling types.
Apartments are developed according to a concept for customisation called Tailorhousing and potential residents can choose from a variety of dwellings ranging from 40-m2 student apartments to a 400-m2 luxury suite. The building has two distinct faces. The east and west facades appear more closed with narrow vertical windows scattered in a seemingly random pattern.
In the textured masonry wall, black extruded bricks from Strating, the traditional Groningen brickworks, have a rough, uneven appearance featuring shiny, glazed black elements. Some bricks protrude perpendicularly from the wall to form a rhythmic pattern. Meanwhile, the more transparent north and south facades feature sliding balcony doors and large aluminium-framed windows.