Cube houses ( nl, kubuswoningen) are a set of innovative houses built in
Helmond
Helmond (; called ''Héllemond'' in the local dialect) is a city and municipality in the Metropoolregio Eindhoven of the province of North Brabant in the Southern Netherlands.
Helmond is home to several textile and metal companies. The Vlisco fa ...
and
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
in the Netherlands, designed by architect
Piet Blom and based on the concept of "living as an urban roof": high density housing with sufficient space on the ground level, since its main purpose is to optimise the space inside. Blom tilted the
cube
In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. Viewed from a corner it is a hexagon and its net is usually depicted as a cross.
The cube is the only r ...
of a conventional house corner upwards, and rested it upon a
hexagon
In geometry, a hexagon (from Ancient Greek, Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple polygon, simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°.
Regular hexa ...
-shaped
pylon. His design represents a village within a city, where each house represents a tree, and all the houses together, a forest. The central idea of the cube houses around the world is mainly optimizing the space, as a house, to a better distribution of the rooms inside.
Helmond
In 1972 Piet Blom was assigned to fill in an empty site in the city center of Helmond, with a meeting center. Blom proposed a plan that intertwined the special with the ordinary, cultural facilities with houses, a theater amidst 188 houses. After the underground parking garage was taken out of the plans, the forest was reduced to 60 houses. But the city council wasn't convinced. Then Minister
Hans Gruijters
Johannes Petrus Adrianus "Hans" Gruijters (; 30 June 1931 – 17 April 2005) was a Dutch politician and co-founder of the Democrats 66 (D66) party and journalist.
Biography
Hans Gruijters studied psychology and political and social sciences a ...
, born in Helmond, subsidised the building of 3 test houses in the Wilhelminalaan in 1974. The project also received the national status of 'Experimental Housing', which helped to realise
Theater 't Speelhuis
Theater 't Speelhuis was a theatre in Helmond, the Netherlands.
The theatre was designed by Piet Blom, who also designed the cube houses in Helmond and in Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second l ...
( en, the playhouse) with a forecourt surrounded by 18 cube houses, at the Piet Blomplein, in 1977. The theatre burned down on December 29, 2011. The two damaged cube houses were restored in 2013/2014.
File:.00 3292 Blaaktoren (Rotterdam).jpg, kubuswoningen
File:01 Rotterdam - Kubushaus.jpg, kubuswoningen
File:Helmond, kubuswoningen foto4 2016-10-16 13.47.jpg, The three test cubes, seen from the Kasteel-Traverse.
File:De paalwoningen van Pieter Blom Weeknummer 76-06 - Open Beelden - 32309.ogv, Polygoon film journal showing the test cubes and plans, NL, 1976
File:Het Speelhuis theatre.jpg, Piet Blom's first floor design, 60 houses, 1974
File:Zicht op kubuswoningen rondom het theater, ontworpen door Piet Blom - Helmond - 20536878 - RCE.jpg, City entrance of the square with cube houses
File:Kubuswoningen Speelhuisplein Helmond.jpg, Cube houses seen from the square in front of the theater.
File:Overzicht ingangspartij van het theater, ontworpen door Piet Blom - Helmond - 20536874 - RCE.jpg, Entrance theater 't Speelhuis, disguised as cube houses
File:Circustent in het Piet Blom Theater.jpg, Circus tent painting by Har Sanders
File:Cultureel Centrum 't Speelhuis met kubuswoningen te Helmond van architect Piet, Bestanddeelnr 929-4128.jpg, Backside of the theater, disguised as cube houses
File:Brand in Theater 't Speelhuis.jpg, 't Speelhuis on fire, 29-12-2011
File:Speelhuis 1-1-2012.jpg, the remains, two days after the fire
File:Speelhuis-helmond-1348076580.jpg, 't Speelhuis demolished in September of 2012
Rotterdam
The houses in Rotterdam are located on Overblaak Street, right above the
Blaak metro station. The 1977 original plan showed 55 houses, but not all of them were built. There are 38 small cubes and two so called 'super-cubes', all attached to each other.
As residents are disturbed so often by curious passers-by, one owner decided to open a "show cube", which is furnished as a normal house, and is making a living out of offering tours to visitors.
The houses contain three floors:
* ground floor entrance
* first floor with living room and open kitchen
* second floor with two bedrooms and bathroom
* top floor which is sometimes used as a small garden
The walls and windows are angled at 54.7 degrees. The total area of the apartment is around , but around a quarter of the space is unusable because of the walls that are under the angled ceilings.
In 2006, a museum of
chess piece
A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either White and Black in chess, white or black, and it can be one of six types: King (chess), king, Queen (chess), queen, Rook (chess ...
s was opened under the houses.
[Chessmen Museum](_blank)
official page.
In 2009, the larger cubes were converted by Personal Architecture into a hostel run by Dutch hostel chain ''Stayokay''.
In 2019, the Art cube opened at Overblaak 30. The Art cube is a place where art and architecture come together. With the original living layout intact, this cube house forms the backdrop for the work of various local artists.
File:Cube houses (Rotterdam) IMG 5090.jpg, Cube houses in Rotterdam viewed from the central space
File:Cube-houses-rotterdam.jpg, Cube houses viewed from beneath
File:Kubuswoningen in rotterdam.jpg, Aerial view of the entire complex
File:Cube houses (Rotterdam) 20180630.jpg, View of the entire
Toronto
In 1996 a cluster of three cubes was built along Eastern Avenue
Architect Ben Kutner and partner Jeff Brown were inspired by the original cube houses and had planned to replicate the Rotterdam design on unusable patches of land. However, only three individual houses were built. In 2018, the land was sold for redevelopment with hopes the structures themselves could be saved and moved elsewhere. In 2021, an application was submitted to the city to redevelop into a "35-storey mixed-use building atop a podium element".
References
External links
Cubic houses Rotterdam
{{coord, 51, 55, 13, N, 4, 29, 26, E, display=title, region:NL_type:landmark_source:nlwiki
Buildings and structures in Rotterdam
House styles
Tourist attractions in Rotterdam
Hostels
nl:Kubuswoningen (Rotterdam)