Residential urban forest in the heart of Rotterdam. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom
07/11/2021.
[Rotterdam] Netherlands
metalocus, RAMIRO ISAURRALDE
metalocus, RAMIRO ISAURRALDE
The city of Rotterdam, in South Holland, has been an avid witness to Europe's most eccentric postmodernity, from BroekBakema's Central Library to Carl Weeber's De Peperklip, or Maarten Struij's central police office and of course, the photogenic Cube Houses by Piet Bloom, who had already dabbled years before in this curious typology in the centre of Helmond.
The housing complex is located in the Blaak area, today surrounded by other recognized works such as the Markthall by MVRDV or the Red Apple by KCAP Architects, or the historic survivors of the German bombing of the 40, Witte Huis and Sint-Laurenskerk, in an area that could also be easily recognized as another of the city's architectural experimentation nodes, perhaps as much as the Museum Park.
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Fashion show in the courtyard of the building. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Marathon going through the Cube Houses. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde
Construction. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Construction. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Construction. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Construction. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Construction. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Construction. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph courtesy of Kijk-Kubus Archief
Site plan. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Site plan. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Elevation. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Elevation. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Section. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Model. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Model. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Model. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Model. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Model. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Model. Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Courtesy of NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut
Hey, what is this? is this a palace or is this a fair?
Piet Blom1
The Cube Houses (kubuswoningen) designed by the Amsterdam architect Piet Blom, are to this day one of the most visited spots in the Dutch city and one of its most recognized examples of Dutch structuralism.
In principle, the proposal arose from an initiative of the municipality that tried to revitalize an area that remained empty since World War II, and that the citizens of Rotterdam identified as unsocial and too "planned", functional and boring. For this reason, the commission asked the architect to give the sector a facelift with several small-scale interventions with playful and recreational spaces that invite the community to interact with them.
With these premises in hand, Blom opted to recover a prototype with which he had experimented in Helmond, just a year earlier. A housing module of cubic morphology, rotated on its central axis 54.7 degrees, perched on hexagonal reinforced concrete pillars.
The initial plan consisted of 74 homes that, with the withdrawal of one of the clients just three days before starting the work, was reduced to only 38 modules. As a way to compensate for this loss, Blom incorporated the Blaaktoren (today identified as The Pencil) into his project. A pentagonal tower located right between the cube houses and the central library.
In addition to this, in parallel, the architect was carrying out another project, part of the same undertaking, for the Spaanskade neighbourhood located right next to the kubuswoningen, consisting of 250 homes with cafes, restaurants and large public spaces, distributed on both sides of the Maas river, with a design not so in line with the rest of the project and crossed by concrete and brick walkways, which would eventually end up forming a kind of great urban renewal masterplan for the Oude Haven area.
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde.
Concerning this change in the author's styles between the different parts of the project, it is precisely Blom who proposed, in an attitude perhaps too own of his time, that he should project the three programs so that it would appear that they had been designed by three different architects.
The cube house project is the one that, finally, gained more prominence in the urban scene of the city and for many years its piano nobile was used as the venue for important political and cultural events.
“Perhaps Piet Blom's work embodies such ambiguity between consensus and challenge more radically, especially in his studies for an urban roof and the various Kasbah projects of the late 1960s and early 1970s. houses are built to "liberate" the urban space and maximize the space for meeting and exchange. The resulting subsoil was conceived as a vague situationist terrain, an open landscape ... "
Dirk van den Heuvel on the work of Piet Blom, 20132
Each of the houses in the complex is developed on three levels that make up a total of 100 m2 and are distributed on the first level with the kitchen and the living room, the second with two bedrooms and the bathroom, and the last level of character. rather flexible, used in most cases as a small garden terrace.
The ground floor of the building is completely free, only occupied by the supports of the houses (and currently some commercial uses), designed in this way with the intention of creating a pedestrian bridge between the Blaak Square and Oude Haven, due to the particular implantation of the work, which is located elevated on one of the busiest avenues in the city centre.
Kubuswoningen by Piet Blom. Photograph by Ramiro Isaurralde.
Although we could easily imagine the complexity of living in a house of these characteristics, either due to the difficulty of incorporating furniture into these spaces, or even the uncertainty that living in a space with walls that are closing towards the height of our heads, the truth is that even today the houses are occupied by private tenants who deal with the thousands of tourists who pass daily to take pictures with their domestic spaces. That said, we also believe it is important to recognize that, beyond the innovation or degree of creativity of the proposal, of the 100 m2 of each home, there are approximately a quarter of them that are lost in unusable angular spaces.
This City within the city or Blaak Forest, as it is often defined by those who live in the city, not only condenses the uses of 38 homes, but also commercial uses, a museum and a hostel. The latter located in the two super-cubes located to the southeast of the plant, both larger than the others and refunctionalized by Kees van Lamoen and Personal Architecture in 2009.
The complex was also subjected to various other restoration processes over the years, of which the 1997-98 and 2000-01 ones stand out, in which the wooden frameworks of its structure were renewed, refurbished the enclosures and roofs, and more visibly, the exteriors that previously alternated between purple and yellow were repainted, to give a new appearance to one of the most recognized urban promenades in the Netherlands.
NOTES.-
1.- Piet Blom. Commemorative plaque located at the access to the cube houses with a phrase from the architect.
2.- HEUVEL, D. van den (ed.) And FRAUSTO, S. (ed.) (2013). "Open Structures: an Introductory Dossier on Dutch Structuralism." Amsterdam: Het Nieuwe Instituut. Volume. 35, No. 1, p. 95.
2.- HEUVEL, D. van den (ed.) And FRAUSTO, S. (ed.) (2013). "Open Structures: an Introductory Dossier on Dutch Structuralism." Amsterdam: Het Nieuwe Instituut. Volume. 35, No. 1, p. 95.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-
- DOUTHAT, Maira Lucía et al. (2019). "El “policubo” como herramienta didáctica para favorecer el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la construcción industrializada." Corrientes: Arquitecno. N ° 14, pp. 42-50.
- HEUVEL, D. van den (ed.) And FRAUSTO, S. (ed.) (2013). "Open Structures: an Introductory Dossier on Dutch Structuralism." Amsterdam: Het Nieuwe Instituut. Volume. 35, No. 1, pp. 65-96.
- METZ, Tracy (2014). "Reinventing the cube." New York: Architectural Record: Renovation, Adaptation, Addition. N ° 02, pp. 84-89.
- MERINO DEL RÍO, Rebeca and GRIJALBA BENGOETXEA, July (2018). "Sobre la contribución de Herman Hertzberger a la corriente del Estructuralismo Holandés." Madrid: CEU San Pablo University. Constelaciones. N ° 6, pp. 32-48.
- HEUVEL, D. van den (ed.) And FRAUSTO, S. (ed.) (2013). "Open Structures: an Introductory Dossier on Dutch Structuralism." Amsterdam: Het Nieuwe Instituut. Volume. 35, No. 1, pp. 65-96.
- METZ, Tracy (2014). "Reinventing the cube." New York: Architectural Record: Renovation, Adaptation, Addition. N ° 02, pp. 84-89.
- MERINO DEL RÍO, Rebeca and GRIJALBA BENGOETXEA, July (2018). "Sobre la contribución de Herman Hertzberger a la corriente del Estructuralismo Holandés." Madrid: CEU San Pablo University. Constelaciones. N ° 6, pp. 32-48.
More information
Architects
Piet Blom.
Client
Rotterdam Municipality.
Area
Total housing area.- 3,800 sqm. House area.- 100 sqm.
Dates
Project.- 1978. Construction.- 1982-1984. Renovations.- 1998, 2001, 2015.
Location
Overblaak 70, 3011 MH Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Photography
Ramiro Isaurralde. NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Piet BLOM
Piet Blom (1934) was born in Amsterdam and grew up in the “Jordaan”, a working class quarter where life takes place on the street. In this district Blom’s vision on living and working was formed. After an education as a carpenter and architectural designer he enrolls in an architectural study at the Academy of Architecture, where one of his tutors is Aldo van Eyck.
While still studying Blom is doing an internship at the Herman Knijtijzer Bureau of Architecture, where he is involved in several projects. But is it difficult for Blom to express himself in the apartment-architecture this bureau is engaged in. In 1962, the last year of his study at the academy, Blom designs an urban plan for an urbanization between Amsterdan and Haarlem called: ‘Noah’s Ark’. The same year he wins the Prix de Rome with his design for the Pestalozzi-children’s village. He uses the grant that he wins to eleborate a vision against the monotonous housing projects consisting of flats and terraced houses. This study is published in 1965 by the association of roof tiles-manufacturers Nedaco with the title ”Living as a general urban roof’. In this vision he designs a city made of two levels: a public space on the ground with of houses above that like the roof of the city. In fact this is the birth of his first idea of what he later elaborates as cubicles.
Especially in the 70’s a lot of structuralist blocks have been built. Structuralism has had a lot of influence on social housing, in the Netherlands, but e.g. in Germany as well. Blom’s architectural motto was: “Living under an urban roof”. With the Amsterdam Jordaan area as an example he wanted to design village-like buildings in which all aspects of life could take place, in which every space and every individual is a part of the whole and is able to develop according to the possibilities.
In the 80’s especially large-scale structuralist buildings have been built. Criticism was raising: too much uniformity, lack of surveyability, suffocation, tedious. More surveyability, transparency, variation and aesthetics was demanded (e.g. by Rem Koolhaas).
In the 90’s the designs of Hertzberger and even Van Eyck express that they went along with the spirit of the time. Blom’s designs for Heemskerk and Amersfoort were executed, but he sticks to his original principles and ideas. Between the projects in Rotterdam (1984) and Heemskerk (1994) is a period of 10 years. For Blom this period was mentally heavy, because none of his designs at that time has been executed: Rotterdam (Pompenburg), Amsterdam, Kampen, Zwolle, Monnickendam, Valkenburg. A dwelling for a befriended contractor (Russian Palace) in Amersfoort revives him.
Piet Blom passed away at June 8th 1999 at the age of 65 years during a holiday in Denmark and has been buried in Monnickendam, his hometown for many years. The NAI (Netherlands Architectural Institute = The New Institute nowadays) in Rotterdam administer his professional estate (drawings, documentation, overview-exhibition).
While still studying Blom is doing an internship at the Herman Knijtijzer Bureau of Architecture, where he is involved in several projects. But is it difficult for Blom to express himself in the apartment-architecture this bureau is engaged in. In 1962, the last year of his study at the academy, Blom designs an urban plan for an urbanization between Amsterdan and Haarlem called: ‘Noah’s Ark’. The same year he wins the Prix de Rome with his design for the Pestalozzi-children’s village. He uses the grant that he wins to eleborate a vision against the monotonous housing projects consisting of flats and terraced houses. This study is published in 1965 by the association of roof tiles-manufacturers Nedaco with the title ”Living as a general urban roof’. In this vision he designs a city made of two levels: a public space on the ground with of houses above that like the roof of the city. In fact this is the birth of his first idea of what he later elaborates as cubicles.
Especially in the 70’s a lot of structuralist blocks have been built. Structuralism has had a lot of influence on social housing, in the Netherlands, but e.g. in Germany as well. Blom’s architectural motto was: “Living under an urban roof”. With the Amsterdam Jordaan area as an example he wanted to design village-like buildings in which all aspects of life could take place, in which every space and every individual is a part of the whole and is able to develop according to the possibilities.
In the 80’s especially large-scale structuralist buildings have been built. Criticism was raising: too much uniformity, lack of surveyability, suffocation, tedious. More surveyability, transparency, variation and aesthetics was demanded (e.g. by Rem Koolhaas).
In the 90’s the designs of Hertzberger and even Van Eyck express that they went along with the spirit of the time. Blom’s designs for Heemskerk and Amersfoort were executed, but he sticks to his original principles and ideas. Between the projects in Rotterdam (1984) and Heemskerk (1994) is a period of 10 years. For Blom this period was mentally heavy, because none of his designs at that time has been executed: Rotterdam (Pompenburg), Amsterdam, Kampen, Zwolle, Monnickendam, Valkenburg. A dwelling for a befriended contractor (Russian Palace) in Amersfoort revives him.
Piet Blom passed away at June 8th 1999 at the age of 65 years during a holiday in Denmark and has been buried in Monnickendam, his hometown for many years. The NAI (Netherlands Architectural Institute = The New Institute nowadays) in Rotterdam administer his professional estate (drawings, documentation, overview-exhibition).
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