Cube house

Last updated
The cube houses in Rotterdam viewed from Blaak metro station GraphyArchy - Wikipedia 00096.jpg
The cube houses in Rotterdam viewed from Blaak metro station

Cube houses (Dutch : kubuswoningen) are a set of innovative houses built in Helmond and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, designed by architect Piet Blom. They are based on the concept of "living as an urban roof": high density housing with sufficient space on the ground level; its main purpose being to optimize the space inside. Blom combatted the ideas of conventional residential architecture by tilting the cube shape on its corner and rested it upon a hexagon-shaped pylon. Blom's main goal was to create an urban area that felt like a village. [1] The cube houses around the world are meant to optimize the space as a house and to efficiently distribute the rooms inside. [2]

Contents

Helmond

In 1972 Piet Blom was assigned to fill an empty site in the city center of Helmond with a meeting center. Blom proposed a plan that mixed cultural facilities with houses and concluded that the cube houses should surround Theater 't Speelhuis (English: the playhouse), creating an interesting architectural whole. After the underground parking garage was taken out of the plans, the plan was reduced to 60 houses. The city council was not satisfied so Minister Hans Gruijters subsidized the building of 3 test houses in the Wilhelminalaan in 1974. The project also received the national status of 'Experimental Housing', which helped to realize Theater 't Speelhuis: a forecourt surrounded by 18 cube houses at the Piet Blomplein in 1977. [3] The theatre burned down on December 29, 2011 which also damaged two adjacent cube houses.. [4] The damaged houses were later restored in 2013 and 2014. [5]

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. [6] 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 living room of the "show cube" in Rotterdam Rotterdam Cube House living room.jpg
The living room of the "show cube" in Rotterdam

The houses contain three floors:

The walls and windows are angled at 54.7 degrees. The total area of the apartment is around 100 square metres (1,100 sq ft), 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 pieces was opened under the houses. [7]

In 2009, the larger cubes were converted by Personal Architecture into a hostel run by Dutch hostel chain Stayokay. [8]

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. [9]

Toronto

In 1996 a house consisting of cluster of three cubes was built along Eastern Avenue [10] Architect Ben Kutner and partner Jeff Brown had been inspired by the original cube houses and wanted to replicate the Rotterdam design on otherwise unusable patches of land. The project was subsequently not extended further. In 2018, the land was sold for redevelopment with hopes the structures themselves could be saved and moved elsewhere. [11] In 2021, an application was submitted to the city to redevelop into a "35-storey mixed-use building atop a podium element". [12]

Structure and materials

The cube houses are constructed with reinforced concrete in the hexagonal trunk that holds the cube region. The hexagonal base tilts the cubes at a 54.7 degree angle, which in turn allows viewers inside to see the street below from the windows. The reinforced concrete floors and pillars hold up a wooden skeleton that creates the cubes. The wooden frame is curtained by fiber cement that has fiber wool in the center for insulation. All windows are structural as well, either being double glass panels or infused with wire. [13]

Spaces

The cube houses are all linked together, and overlap to create a unique façade. The entrance to the houses enter into a narrow stair case. The ground floor in triangular in shape and is meant to be used as a living room area. The second and third floors are intended to be bedrooms and toiletry areas, most often having the bathroom on the second level. [14] The odd angle of the walls allows the area to feel more open but leaves only a quarter of the area actually usable. The second floor has the windows facing towards the sky, as well as two bedrooms, a small living area, and a bathroom. The top floor is a pyramid shaped room with 18 windows that give the viewer a sweeping view outside. All of the levels are connected by narrow wooden stairs. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willits House</span> Historic house in Illinois, United States

The Ward W. Willits House is a home designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed in 1901, the Willits house is considered one of the first of the great Prairie School houses. Built in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, the house presents a symmetrical facade to the street. One of the more interesting points about the structure is Wright's ability to seamlessly combine architecture with nature. The plan is a cruciate with four wings extending out from a central fireplace. In addition to stained-glass windows and wooden screens that divide rooms, Wright also designed the furniture for the house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rietveld Schröder House</span> House in Utrecht, Netherlands

The Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht was built in 1924 by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld for Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder and her three children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Esherick House</span> Residential in Sunrise Lane, Philadelphia

The Margaret Esherick House in Philadelphia is one of the most studied of the nine built houses designed by American architect Louis Kahn. Commissioned by Chestnut Hill bookstore owner Margaret Esherick, the house was completed in 1961. In 2023, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piet Blom</span> Dutch architect

Piet Blom was a Dutch architect best known for his designs of the Bastille (1964–1969), a restaurant and student facility at the University of Twente, Enschede, the housing project Kasbah in Hengelo (1969–1973), and the Cube Houses built in Helmond (1972–1976) and in Rotterdam (1978–1984).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villa Mairea</span> Villa in Finland

Villa Mairea is a villa, guest-house, and rural retreat designed and built by the Finnish modernist architect Alvar Aalto for Harry and Maire Gullichsen in Noormarkku, Finland. The building was constructed in 1938–1939.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Richardson House</span>

The Stuart Richardson House (affectionately named 'Scherzo' by Frank Lloyd Wright) in Glen Ridge, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, was built in 1951 for Stuart Richardson (an actuary) and his wife Elisabeth. The Richardsons, with their two daughters Margot and Edith, moved in on October 23, 1951, and owned the house until 1970. It is one of Wright's "Usonian" homes, designed to be functional houses for people of average means. The primary building construction materials employed in the design of the house were red brick, old growth tidewater cypress wood, and glass on a Cherokee red radiant heated concrete floor mat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suntop Homes</span> Houses in Ardmore, Pennsylvania

The Suntop Homes, also known under the early name of The Ardmore Experiment, were quadruple residences located in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and based largely upon the 1935 conceptual Broadacre City model of the minimum houses. The design was commissioned by Otto Tod Mallery of the Tod Company in 1938 in an attempt to set a new standard for the entry-level housing market in the United States and to increase single-family dwelling density in the suburbs. In cooperation with Frank Lloyd Wright, the Tod Company secured a patent for the unique design, intending to sell development rights for Suntops across the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William R. Heath House</span> Historic house in Buffalo, New York

The William R. Heath House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, built from 1903 to 1905, and is located at 76 Soldiers Place in Buffalo, New York. It is built in the Prairie School architectural style. It is a contributing property in the Elmwood Historic District–East historic district and a City of Buffalo landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter V. Davidson House</span> Historic house in New York, United States

The Walter V. Davidson House, located at 57 Tillinghast Place in Buffalo, New York, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1908. It is an example of Wright's Prairie School architectural style. The house is a contributing property to the Parkside East Historic District, a neighborhood laid out by renowned American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1876, and also a City of Buffalo landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton Odem House</span> United States historic place

The Milton Odem House is a small bungalow home located in Redmond, Oregon. The house was built in 1937 by Ole K. Olson for Milton Odem, a local theater owner. It is one of the best examples of residential Streamline Moderne architecture in Oregon. The Milton Odem House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fisher House (Hatboro, Pennsylvania)</span> Residence by Louis Kahn

The Fisher House, also known as the Norman Fisher House, was designed by the architect Louis Kahn and built for Dr. Norman Fisher and his wife, Doris in 1967 in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. Characterized by its dual cubic volumes, stone foundation and detailed cypress cladding, the Fisher house stands as a clear statement of how Kahn was working at the time, and how his work differed from that of his contemporaries. In the Fisher House, Kahn eschews the linearity of the modern plan and focuses on a simple geometry, allowing the cubes to provide a separation of public and private space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theater 't Speelhuis</span>

Theater 't Speelhuis was a theatre in Helmond, the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rufer House</span> Building in Vienna, Austria

The Rufer House at Schließmanngasse 11 in Vienna, was designed by architect Adolf Loos in 1922 for Josef Rufer and Marie Rufer. It is considered to be the first example of Raumplan style. Raumplan differs from its predecessor Free Plan style in its internal spatial organization. While not as well known as other designs by Loos, the Rufer House set the precedent for his later designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horton Rounds</span> House in Horton, Northamptonshire, UK

Horton Rounds is a modernist house in the village of Horton, Northamptonshire. The house was built in 1966 by A. A. J. Marshman, a senior partner in Marshman, Warren and Taylor, a regional architectural practice.

Le Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture is an architecture manifesto conceived by architect, Le Corbusier. It outlines five key principles of design that he considered to be the foundations of the modern architectural discipline, which would be expressed through much of his designs.

The House at Big Hill, was completed in 2011, designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects. This project is located at Big Hill, on the Great Ocean Road, near Lorne. It addresses the site and also considered a limited material selection as part of its main design concept.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolwoningen</span> Dutch community in Den Bosch, Netherlands, consisting of 50 spherical houses

Bolwoningen are Dutch spherical houses in the Maaspoort neighborhood of 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. It consists of 50 spherical houses grouped together near to a canal.

The Vann Molyvann House is a landmark of the city of Phnom Penh built in 1966 by Khmer architect Vann Molyvann as his private house and architecture office. It has been dubbed as the "Cambodian Taliesin" and praised as a "testimony to the unique ability of Southeast Asia's greatest living architect to fuse European modernism with traditional Khmer design in an apparently seamless style."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welch-Hurst</span> Historic ranch in California, United States

Welch-Hurst, also known as the Judge J.R. Welch's Ranch, is a historic gentleman's working ranch and family retreat in Saratoga, California. This ranch represents an early example of American Craftsman-style architectural, built for Judge James R. Welch. The Welch-Hurst ranch was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 18, 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villa Menichetti</span> Building in via Piana

Villa Menichetti is a stately home located at via Piana, 210 in the Sant'Alessio area of Lucca.

References

  1. Pascucci, Denim. "AD Classics: Kubuswoningen / Piet Blom" . Retrieved 11 December 2024.
  2. "Cube-shaped houses". Archived from the original on 2011-03-01. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
  3. Woningenwoud, EX 73 - 177, in Predicaat experimentele woningbouw 1968-1980, Verkenning Post 65, Marcel Barzilay, Ruben Ferwerda, Anita Blom, Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, 2018, page 105 (in Dutch)
  4. Very large fire in Theater 't Speelhuis, Helmond. (in Dutch)
  5. Herbouw Paalwoningen Helmond Archived 2021-05-07 at the Wayback Machine renovation blog with photos, in Dutch
  6. "blaakse bos: kubuswoningen, blaakoverbouwing" (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  7. Chessmen Museum official page.
  8. Stayokay: Hostel Rotterdam
  9. "Art cube".
  10. Dave LeBlanc (2001-09-22). "Toronto's quirky cube home is in need of a little cosmic energy". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 2012-10-28.
  11. Lewis, Michael (12 August 2018). "Toronto's cube homes have been sold and the new owners just want the land". Toronto Star . Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  12. "Application Details - 1 Sumach". City of Toronto. City of Toronto. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  13. "Cube Houses" . Retrieved 11 December 2024.
  14. "Piet Blom, Cube House" . Retrieved 11 December 2024.
  15. "Cube Houses" . Retrieved 11 December 2024.

51°55′13″N4°29′26″E / 51.92028°N 4.49056°E / 51.92028; 4.49056