Piet Blom 1982-1984
Blaak
Rotterdam

The city of Rotterdam is not afraid to try something new and different. An example is the 'cube houses' located in the area called Blaak.

The cube house, or pole house, is a design of the Dutch architect Piet Blom (1934-1999). The construction of the 38 cube houses started in 1982 and was completed in 1984. Blom thought of his design as an abstract tree and of the total complex as a wood. A cube house reminds of a tree hut that is accessible through the pole.

Blom's idea was to create a village within a city. On street level, several public activities take place in small businesses, shops, a school and on a playground. People live in the cube houses upstairs, thus combining the public with the private.
The complex is in fact a pedestrian bridge arching the street below. Blom was asked by the municipal town planners to 'furnish' this bridge. In a sense, the cube houses are an architectonic experiment, in which Blom considered form, aesthetics and spatial effects more important than functionality and practical purpose.

The cube looks as if it is tilted and placed with one point on a pole, so that three sides are facing the ground and the other three are facing the sky.

Close to the cube houses you will see the pencil-shaped 'Potlood' (Pencil), a residential building also designed by Blom.