A cube house is a dwelling whose living volume is a cube tilted onto one of its corners and supported on a hexagonal column. The type was designed by the Dutch architect Piet Blom and built in Helmond and in Rotterdam, where the cube houses at the Blaak (completed in 1984) are the best known example. In Dutch they are called kubuswoningen.
How the structure works
Because the cube stands on a corner, every surface of the house slopes: there is not a single vertical external wall and no flat ceiling in the usual sense.
- Column — a brick or concrete hexagonal shaft carries the cube and contains the entrance and staircase
- Lower level — living room and kitchen, with windows sloping outwards
- Middle level — bedrooms and bathroom, with windows sloping inwards
- Top point — in some cubes an extra room or small conservatory
Blom described the arrangement as a tree: the column is the trunk and the cube is the crown. A row of cubes forms a “forest” with public space running underneath.
What this means for the occupant
The sloping walls call for bespoke work. Standard cupboards fit badly, curtain tracks have to be made to measure, and the usable floor area is smaller than the gross volume suggests. When planning the layout, allow for:
- Limited headroom at the edges — only the middle of the floor is fully usable
- Fitted furniture — cupboards built into the sloping corners make use of space that is otherwise lost
- Solar shading — the outward sloping windows on the living level collect a lot of sun and heat
- Insulation and maintenance — the façade surfaces behave like roof surfaces and need detailing suited to a roof
A cube house is not a construction method you would apply yourself, but it is a good illustration of how one structural idea determines an entire floor plan.
Related terms
- Architect
- Building style
- House type
- Column
- Roof surface
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