With its world-leading spirit in architecture and urban planning, the Netherlands has long been a fertile ground for innovative housing ideas. Among the country's most popular and unconventional architectural structures is Kubuswoningen—the Cube Houses—by Dutch architect Piet Blom. Built during the late 20th century, the houses ignore conventional shapes and wreak havoc on the very notion of home space. Conceived as an "urban forest, each tilted cube is a symbol for a tree, assembled to form a canopy of geometric abstraction within the city.

Blom's cubes are not just visually interesting—they embody a more profound social and spatial philosophy intended to reframe how we dwell and navigate urban space. This article looks at the history, manifestation, and legacy of the Cube Houses in Rotterdam and Helmond, considering how this revolutionary typology remains a source of controversy, respect, and interest.

Architectural concept

Blom's philosophy of architecture was one of the human scale, social interaction, and lighthearted manipulation of form. The Cube Houses reflect these ideals directly. The house is fundamentally a hexagonal prism rotated 45 degrees and set upon a concrete pillar as a "trunk." The cubes, placed to rest upon a single corner, create an angular canopy that is seemingly disorganized at a distance but, upon closer observation, reveals a strict internal logic.

The concept of "urban forest" is at the heart of Blom's vision: units as trees, a forest of buildings that shelters and unites. Rather than isolating each unit, the design connects them into a network, physically and metaphorically. The intention was not merely to house but to foster interaction between neighbors and the city itself.

Structurally, the cubes were specially designed. Normal furniture and room configurations do not easily lend themselves to sloping walls and angled ceilings, requiring residents to take creative steps to make them work. But this tension between spaces is precisely what gives the architecture its experimental nature.

Rotterdam vs. Helmond: two urban experiments

Blom first tested his cube house idea in Helmond during the late 1970s. The smaller, lesser-marketed scheme came before and prepared the ground for his larger plan in Rotterdam. The Rotterdam Cube Houses, completed in 1984, are the culmination of the concept, with 38 cube houses and an expanded community cube (super cube).

In contrast to the Helmond type, more detached and restrained in scale, the Rotterdam complex is located in a densely concentrated urban environment near the city center. Surrounded by a busy metro stop and a busy market square, these houses don't simply sit there—they interact with the surroundings. Pedestrian paths, subways, and overpasses turn the site into a busy, quasi-public area.

The Rotterdam cubes are now an icon of the city, which is widely photographed and a hit with tourists. There is even one unit—"Show Cube"—that has been converted into a museum, where tourists can take a tour of life within a tilting cube.

Living in a cube

So, what is it like to live in a cube? According to residents and visitors, it's an even split. Each house occupies three stories: the ground floor is the entry, the middle has the living room and the kitchen, and the top story is typically a bedroom or office with triangular windows all around.

The spatial design contradicts conventional domestic habits. Furniture has to be custom-made or modified. The slanting walls create difficulties in hanging paintings or setting bookshelves. However, most inhabitants welcome the quirk, appreciating the profusion of light, multi-directional vistas, and invigorating geometry.

These houses are not just homes; they are architecture as experience. They invite the occupant to reinterpret space, gravity, and direction. Amidst a cosmos of right angles and dull patterns, the Cube Houses offer an unusual refuge into playful architecture.

Symbolism and legacy

The Cube Houses came out in an era characterized by revolutionary experimentation in architecture in Europe. The likes of Archigram in Britain, Hans Hollein in Austria, and Dutch Structuralists wanted to redefine how humans live, communicate, and occupy space. Piet Blom, drawn to structuralism as well as being under the influence of his teacher Aldo van Eyck, played a part in this by way of designs that were interested in community more than objectness.

Kubuswoningen symbolized a shift in Dutch architecture—from functionalist rationalism to a more human-centered, expressive approach. They encapsulate the postmodern ambition to create not just buildings, but narratives.

Though the houses were criticized as gimmicky or impractical, they have endured as cultural icons. In Rotterdam, the Cube Houses are registered as part of the city's heritage architecture. They are a standard feature in urban studies courses and design theory books as a case study of radical residential architecture.

Experimental housing in the Netherlands: repetition, modularity, and vision

While Piet Blom's Cube Houses remain quite possibly the best-known examples of Dutch architectural experiments, they are far from stand-alone. In fact, the Netherlands has a rather long history of repetitive modular living schemes, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, when architectural innovation specifically was encouraged through experimental programs backed by the government.

Among these, the Woningbouw Experimenten (BE) scheme supported over 60 experimental house schemes between 1968 and 1984. These schemes looked to redefine conventional living space by extreme typology and structural solutions. Below are some of the most notable examples:

Bolwoningen, 's-Hertogenbosch (1984): Dries Kreijkamp

An immediate peer to the Cube Houses, Bolwoningen—"the ball houses"—are" hemispherical homes aimed at maximizing prefabrication, modularity, and planning space. At ''s-Hertogenbosch, 50 spheres in fiberglass-reinforced concrete were designed to make the best use of interior space with minimum land allocation. Although no great success for the concept occurred, the Bolwoningen themselves constitute an empowering experiment in building design.

Kasbah Housing, Hengelo (1973): Piet Blom

Before the Cube Houses, Blom had experimented with collective living through the Kasbah project. The 184 apartments, organized around half-public courtyards, were meant to be a contemporary reinterpretation of an old village. Built on an elevated platform and entered by ramps and walkways, the complex encouraged both privacy and interaction—a theme that would be echoed in Blom's later work.

WoZoCo Apartments, Amsterdam (1997): MVRDV

This second, but no less visionary, project answers city density by suspending modular blocks of apartments from the side of the central structure. Though originally designed for seniors, the WoZoCo apartments quickly came to be associated with their innovative shape and smart use of space.

Silodam, Amsterdam (2002): MVRDV

A peer of WoZoCo, the Silodam project presents a colossal, block structure consisting of dozens of separately unique but recurring modules piled upon one another in a shipping container manner. The project attains variety and uniformity in a way that reflects the city's diversity in one megastructure.

These and other test tube housing experiments showcase the Netherlands' unique architectural culture, one that values not only visual innovation but also social intent, modular innovation, and environmental pragmatism. Along with the Cube Houses, these projects show a risk-taking architecture culture that keeps sparking new generations of designers and urban thinkers.