CURIOUS CUBES

THE CURIOUS CUBE HOUSES OF ROTTERDAM

During my year living in Holland I took the liberty in attempting to cover as much of this country as I could. Neighbouring Den Haag where I lived, is the brilliantly quirky town of Rotterdam.

Other than the lure of Primark and other shopping escapades I was drawn here in the hope of locating and exploring the curious cubic housing complex I’d heard so much about.

This peculiar design is the innovation of Dutch architect Piet Blom. The challenge? Design and build a housing structure utilizing the space above a pedestrian overpass.  At a glance it appears as if a bunch of huge yellow blocks have fallen from the sky and crash landed into this imperfectly perfect cubic-cluster. Blom describes his work as being the structural representation of an abstract yellow forest- a home among homes. With each house representing a tree and each tree connecting with the next to make a forest. With such a wacky design and musky yellow colour scheme it’s no surprise this is a product of the 70’s. Blom actually built three test houses in Helmond back in 1974 which lead to the construction of 18 fully functioning homes popping up in 1977. It wasn't until the early 80s construction on the Rotterdam 'Forest' started. Believe it or not, all but one of these curious cubes are occupied. Who wouldn’t want to call a giant yellow tree-house block hanging on to an overpass, home? The one left over is open to the public and was actually purpose built as a late edition due to the high numbers of curious cats disturbing the residents as they tried to get a peek inside these homes.

With a total floor space of 100sqm, these fully functioning houses are actually made up of three floors! The ground entrance floor, an open plan kitchen & living floor and top floor with two bedrooms and a bath. Due to the walls being angled at 54.7 degrees only a small proportion of the floor space can actually be used- the angles do make for wonderful viewpoints out the windows though!

If the show cube isn't quite enough for you, as of 2009 STAYOKAY Dutch hostel company bought and converted one and for roughly $25AUD you curious cats can choose to stay there!