What is a “Kubuswoning” in the Netherlands?
Wonen in een halve kubuswoning in Zwolle
A2 Dutch listening practice · Dutch · Picked for people who know a little
Kubuswoning is the tilted-cube house designed by Dutch architect Piet Blom in the late 1970s, where each cube is rotated 45° onto a hexagonal base. The most famous Kubus complex sits at Rotterdam’s Overblaak (1984, around 38 houses), but Blom built smaller versions in Helmond (1975) and Zwolle (1982). Inside, the angled walls and hexagonal floor plan turn ordinary rooms into geometric puzzles. The Zwolle Kubussen are mostly smaller “half-cubes” tucked into the historic city center.
In this KRO-NCRV clip, residents show off their Zwolle half-cube: “Verstopt in de binnenstad van Zwolle huren Nanna en Martijn een halve kubuswoning vol karakter.”
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-NL 2014 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Dutch architecture and Piet Blom coverage (Het Nieuwe Instituut, ArchDaily, Architectenweb)
- ▸On the famous Rotterdam complex (Kijk-Kubus, Visit Rotterdam, Het Parool)
- ▸In Dutch broadsheet design columns (NRC Cultuur, De Volkskrant, Trouw)
- ▸In Zwolle and regional coverage (RTV Oost, De Stentor, Indebuurt Zwolle)