The Witte Huis () or White House is a building and National Heritage Site in Rotterdam, Netherlands, built in 1898 in the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

style.Rijksmonument report The building is tall, with 10 floors. It was also the first ''hoogbouw'' (literally: high-rise building) in Europe. The building is listed as a

Rijksmonument A rijksmonument (, ) is a national heritage site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. At the end of February 2015, the Netherlands ...

Construction

The architect Willem Molenbroek designed the 10-storey building, at the time an unprecedented height in Europe. The site at Wijnhaven 3 is just 1 m above sea-level and skeptics claimed that the soft soil of Rotterdam would be unable to adequately support the building, so before construction could properly begin, 1000

piles Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''hemo ...

were driven into the ground to support the building's weight. The building is constructed from iron, steel and concrete, and includes two thick interior walls which increase the building's strength. Unlike many other contemporary buildings of the time, wood was not a significant construction material due to the fear of fire. The building cost 127,900

Dutch guilder The guilder ( nl, gulden, ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from the 15th century until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro. The Dutch name ''gulden'' was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning "golden", and reflects the fact that, wh ...

s. It was also one of the few buildings in central Rotterdam to survive the German bombing campaigns of World War II.

In popular culture

The White House is featured in the game ''

Battlefield V ''Battlefield V'' is a first-person shooter game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It is the eleventh main installment in the ''Battlefield'' series and the successor to 2016's ''Battlefield 1'', and was released for Microsoft ...

''. It takes place during the Battle of Rotterdam, which itself is part of the

Battle of the Netherlands The German invasion of the Netherlands ( nl, Duitse aanval op Nederland), otherwise known as the Battle of the Netherlands ( nl, Slag om Nederland), was a military campaign part of Battle of France, Case Yellow (german: Fall Gelb), the Nazi Ge ...

in May 1940. The White House is only featured in one of the two maps called "Rotterdam", which is the one before the Rotterdam Blitz happened.

References

External links

De bouw van het Witte Huis in 1897
''The construction of the White House in 1897'' {{Coord, 51, 55, 07.8, N, 04, 29, 30.3, E, display=title Rijksmonuments in Rotterdam Art Nouveau architecture in the Netherlands Art Nouveau commercial buildings Commercial buildings completed in 1898 Buildings and structures in Rotterdam 1898 establishments in the Netherlands