From industrial manufacturers to the military and now entrepreneurs – each phase of history has helped to shape the site into what it is today, but it remains compact. Many buildings dating from various eras have been transformed into unique office spaces and testing/training facilities, yet without losing the sense of their historical significance. 
Setting up a business base at a still-evolving site creates new chances. Technology Base is a try-out location for pioneering entrepreneurs. Here, transience can exist alongside long-term development. The companies that choose to settle at Technology Base all share an entrepreneurial spirit, a desire for freedom and strong capacity for innovation. Here, the focus is on flexibility and organic growth.

Links to the Randstad

In the 1930s, textile barons in Twente worked together with the local authorities to build an airport to improve links to the Randstad conurbation in the west of the country. The first plane from Amsterdam landed in Twente in 1932, although the airport was still very basic at that time: little more than a runway in a field where sheep grazed happily if no flights were planned. The textile industry was booming back then. However, air was unable to compete with rail as a mode of transport for freight or passengers, and the 60-hectare site ended up closing just before the Second World War.

Military air base

During World War II, the Germans spotted the airport’s potential. They expanded it to 2,000 hectares, and built barracks and officer quarters. Excellent use was made of so-called ‘camouflage architecture’ and various clusters of buildings and facilities were constructed at some distance from the air base, creating the effect of a hamlet or farm complex. These unique buildings have been preserved until this day. The Dutch air force took over the site after the war, leaving the German buildings intact and adding more as needed. Two squadrons were based there during the Cold War, which resulted in new buildings being constructed in the style of that time – such as huge hangars and shelters for F16s, for example. Besides that, the runway was extended to almost three kilometres, making it one of the longest in the country and definitely long enough for any kind of aeroplane.

The permitted use of the site was later extended to include civilian flights too, but from January 2008 onwards all military and civilian flights were disallowed, leaving only a handful of flying clubs still allowed to use the runway. 

In 2010 the Dutch government sold what was known as Voormalige Vliegbasis Twenthe to the Province of Overijssel and the Municipality of Enschede. Since then, the 480-hectare former air base (including all the military buildings) has been redeveloped into three unique residential areas, new parkland, event sites and Technology Base.