The Cellar - View Single Post

chrisinhouston · 05-14-2003, 11:21 AM

found this:

Behind these formalist projects stands a quaint story. According to Blom, during a town meeting in Helmond about the residential units, a local man stood up and declared, "The people of this region don't need anything more than a tree to live in." The romantic Blom took these words literally: the project is clearly a cubist depiction of a forest.

From a constructive point of view, the trunk of the building is composed of three concrete columns. The Cubes were originally made of coated wooden skeletons, with fiber boards (18 mm) on the inside, and rock wool insulation. The living quarters in the Cubes, the virtual trees, have various spatial implications. The placing of the cubes on their vertex grants the spaces particular interest and the residents enjoy an unusual point of view of the rest of the project and the outside world, through the slanted window. Living above ground grants the community a sense of security. Although in an urban setting, the complex is well maintained and free of the typical vandalism that occurs in areas unpopulated during working hours. The various uses, and correct relation between desirable closure and required openness, create a situation in which even during the day the complex is never deserted.

Life "at an angle" is not foreign to the Dutch, a people famous for their ability to maximize use of space, to populate a building's every corner, and even its attics. To offer variety in the life of a complex composed of repetitious cubes, Blom created three kinds of units, organized differently and destined for different purposes: two and three floored cubes designated as residential, and three floored cubes for public purposes. In the small cubes, the walls in the storage and the adjacent staircase rooms on the ground floor are made of stone, as opposed to the light walls of the actual cubes. In the large three storey cubes, the ground floor is used for residents. In one of the vertex is a kitchen and dining room; the bathrooms and storage area are in another vertex, and in the third, a study and work corner. On the middle floor, there are two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small hallway. In the superior vertex of the cube, another room, in which the windows are high up. All in all, in every cube there are 18 windows and three portholes which allow for unique and interesting perspectives. The windows are double-glazed, reinforced with steel netting where necessary.

The project, worn out by the march of the tourists, was renovated in 1998.

05-14-2003, 11:21 AM	#10
chrisinhouston Professor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Houston TX Posts: 1,857	found this: Behind these formalist projects stands a quaint story. According to Blom, during a town meeting in Helmond about the residential units, a local man stood up and declared, "The people of this region don't need anything more than a tree to live in." The romantic Blom took these words literally: the project is clearly a cubist depiction of a forest. From a constructive point of view, the trunk of the building is composed of three concrete columns. The Cubes were originally made of coated wooden skeletons, with fiber boards (18 mm) on the inside, and rock wool insulation. The living quarters in the Cubes, the virtual trees, have various spatial implications. The placing of the cubes on their vertex grants the spaces particular interest and the residents enjoy an unusual point of view of the rest of the project and the outside world, through the slanted window. Living above ground grants the community a sense of security. Although in an urban setting, the complex is well maintained and free of the typical vandalism that occurs in areas unpopulated during working hours. The various uses, and correct relation between desirable closure and required openness, create a situation in which even during the day the complex is never deserted. Life "at an angle" is not foreign to the Dutch, a people famous for their ability to maximize use of space, to populate a building's every corner, and even its attics. To offer variety in the life of a complex composed of repetitious cubes, Blom created three kinds of units, organized differently and destined for different purposes: two and three floored cubes designated as residential, and three floored cubes for public purposes. In the small cubes, the walls in the storage and the adjacent staircase rooms on the ground floor are made of stone, as opposed to the light walls of the actual cubes. In the large three storey cubes, the ground floor is used for residents. In one of the vertex is a kitchen and dining room; the bathrooms and storage area are in another vertex, and in the third, a study and work corner. On the middle floor, there are two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small hallway. In the superior vertex of the cube, another room, in which the windows are high up. All in all, in every cube there are 18 windows and three portholes which allow for unique and interesting perspectives. The windows are double-glazed, reinforced with steel netting where necessary. The project, worn out by the march of the tourists, was renovated in 1998.