cube houses by Piet Blom

Modern Dutch architect
Piet Blom is square.
So are his buildings.



Way back in the 70s – the heyday
 of the Modern Architecture
movement – he embarked on



 a construction adventure culminating in 1984 with two neighbouring building projects:
the Spanish Quay housing project and Blaaktower (“Pencil”) surrounding the Old Harbour of what was once the mouth of Rotterdam’s River Rotte. Both projects are a surprisingly harmonious unit against the backdrop of Rotterdam’s past and with the many cafés, restaurants and terraces, it’s developed into one of the city’s most important recreational areas.

Blom speaks about his “forest” of tree-houses with a sense of drama, once comparing them with the vaulting of a cathedral. The entire complex of tilted cubes on poles and the sharplooking Blaaktower give a theatrical and picturesque feeling.
Such an imaginative building demands a suitable name so the complex of cube-houses (tree- houses) is often symbolicly called “Het Blaakse Bos” (Blaak Forest).
The building is infact a pedestrian bridge crossing a busy traffic artery (Blaak). From the municipal town planners point of view, it was designed to be a safe connection between the new housing projects along the Old Harbour and the inner city.

Blom was asked to “furnish” this bridge, taking his inspiration from the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy.

His idea was to create a village within a town, a safe oasis where several functions could take place: smallscale businesses, shops, cafés, a school, cultural centre and children’s playground downstairs (promenadelevel) and living quarters in the cube-houses upstairs.
The strong interaction between the private (upstairs) and public spaces (downstairs) is characteristic of his vision, with inhabitants having a wide view of the scenery around them thanks to the sloping windows.
The cube-house could be called an architectonic experiment in which Blom has considered form, aesthetics
and spatial effects of greater importance than functionality and practical purpose. Living in a cube (crown)
is a reminder of a tree-hut accessible through the pole (trunk).  A really primeval way of living.