Kijkubus

One of Rotterdam's notable attractions is its wild architecture.  Everything in Rotterdam is curvy, or spiky, or weird just for the sake of having cool architectural designs.  One of my professors called it a disease, it is so prevalent.  One of Rotterdam's major sights is just such a thing.  The Cube Houses, which are located by Blaakplein--which is where the Blaak Markt is held every Tuesday and Saturday.  The Cube House complex was one of the first Rotterdam landmarks I saw when I arrived.  According the the official Cube House website, which you can find here in English, the architect wanted the buildings to look like trees.

This is a scale model of the Cube House complex and the
Blaaktoren showing nearby buildings and the
location of the canals, etc.

The Kubuswoning were built in the '80s as part of an integrated living arrangement (like Windhurst) which also served as a pedestrian bridge over the rather busy road that runs through this part of town.



The buildings include businesses on the lower levels and apartments in the cube shaped top parts.  One of the cubes is a student hostel with a hostel company that specializes in having hostels located in unique or historical buildings.  One of the cubes is set up as a museum.  It is called the Kijkubus which kind of a play on words since "kijk" is root of the Dutch "to look" and "kubus" means "cube".

This is the very compact, but kind of cute, kitchen.
Notice how the walls are slanting out at an angle.

The house is very tiny, with itty-bitty stairways.  There are three floors in each house (and they are all flat) but the layout is such that there really isn't very much room.

This is the dining area and the beginning of the kitchen
plus part of the living room.

This is the living area/little gift shop area that makes up the rest of the first floor.  The stairs are on the left, just past the monkey, as is the teeny-tiny bathroom.  They were installing a new shower door on the door I was there which is one of the main reasons that I think that the museum curator also lives in the house.

The second floor includes a bedroom and a little den area organized around the central column of the house where the stairs are located.  There are shelves all around that central column.  These shelves are full of all kinds of little trinkets and books.

There were all kinds of little collectable things.
Like these little pieces of dollhouse furniture.
I do like the little elephants, though.

This is a chess set made out of famous Rotterdam landmarks.  You will notice that the King is the Euromast, the Queen is the Erasmusbrug, the Bishops are the the World Trade Center, the Knights are the Shipping and Transport College, the Castles are the Maas Tower, and the pawns are little Cube Houses.  I really, really want this chess set.

There were also shelves and shelves of Tolkien character busts, Tolkien books, and other SciFi type books.

The third floor was set up like a little sitting room but was unbelievably hot, even with a dedicated air conditioning unit.  This is not really surprising considering that the top floor was set up kind of like a green house.  There were loads of cactus up there and they seemed to be thriving.

On the left below are the stairs leading down from the third floor to the second.  Note the walls.  On the right is the view from the third floor, across the other cube houses out to the Williamsbrug.
 

I found this sign entertaining.  Since the door is on one of the walls that is leaning in at a 45 degree angle, I suppose it would be pretty painful to let the door slam on your fingers.













The Cube House complex is actually a large group of buildings which covers a pedestrian bridge over a major 6 lane road.  Inside the complex there are little pedestrian complexes and there are businesses in the "trunk" sections of the buildings.  There were accounting businesses, several nail and hair places, and at least one tattoo place.  There were lots of potted plants and little miniature-sized work equipment.