Fun Facts About Rotterdam’s Cube Houses

Photo by Anne-Marie Pos on Unsplash

The Cube Houses are one of Rotterdam’s quirkiest attractions, and they’re visited by countless tourists every year, but there’s so much more to this housing project than meets the eye.

Central Idea

The Cube Houses are a brainchild of architect Piet Blom, whose main goal was to optimize the space inside by tilting the cube of a conventional house by 45 degrees.

Forest of Homes

Blom also had the vision to design a village within a city with his Cube houses — each house within this formation represents a tree, so they could form a forest together.

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[🇧🇷/🇺🇸] Parece cenário de desenho animado, mas essas são as Casas Cúbicas (Cube Houses) em Roterdã! A ideia aqui é otimizar espaço, aglomerando pessoas sem aglomerar o chão, baseado no conceito de viver em um "telhado urbano", como se fossem casas de árvores (cada casa representa uma árvore e o aglomerado, uma floresta)! E sim, tem pessoas morando nelas! Aliás, se você quiser dá até para se hospedar, pois tem um hostel (Stayok) funcionando por lá. É muito bacana, Roterdã é uma cidade incrível!! Conhecemos essas casas e ficamos sabendo mais da história de Roterdã em um tour fantástico com a @derotterdamtours. Indicamos muito!! ⠀ Tem muita informação e dicas de Roterdã no @rotterdam_info, o site é super completo! ⠀ ✈ Fomos para a Holanda em um excelente voo direto da @klm de Fortaleza para Amsterdã! ⠀ 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 The famous Cube Houses in Rotterdam! The idea here is to optimize space, crowding people without crowding the floor, based on the concept of living on an "urban roof", as if they were tree houses (each house represents a tree and the clump, a forest)! And yes, there are people living in them! If you want you can stay there, there is a hostel (Stayok) running there. It's so cool, Rotterdam is an amazing city!! We know these houses and we learn more about Rotterdam's history on a fantastic tour with @derotterdamtours. We recommend it a lot!! ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀🔹🔷🔹 #cubehouses #loverotterdam #visitrotterdam #rotterdamcity #bestofnetherlands #rotterdamhotspots #iggersrotterdam #rottergram #eurotrip #may19chegou #queroviajarmais #essemundoenosso #destinosimperdiveis #melhoresdestinos #congeleiomomento

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Total Number

When Cube houses were designed in 1977, there was a plan to build 55 homes, but only 38 small cubes and two super-cubes ended up being completed.

Three Floors

Each of the houses is composed of three floors, including the ground floor entrance, two floors that serve as a living area, and top floor which is typically used as a small garden.

Another Attempt

Architect Ben Kutner and Jeff Brown were inspired by this project and tried to create similar Cube Houses in Toronto, but only three ended up being built.