Cube Houses and Markthal

Background

Both buildings are in Rotterdam's Blaak district: the Cube Houses stand on Overblaak street, right above Blaak metro station, and the Markthal stands at Binnenrotte, a few minutes' walk away. The Cube Houses were designed by architect Piet Blom as a variant of his cube houses in Helmond and were built from 1982 to 1984. Thirty-eight small cubes and two "super-cubes" are linked together, each cube set at a tilt on a hexagonal pylon that holds the entrance and stairs; each home has three levels, from the living room and kitchen at the bottom to a small space at the very top. The Markthal was designed by MVRDV and opened by Queen Máxima on 1 October 2014. The inside of its horseshoe-shaped vault carries the 11,000-square-metre Horn of Plenty by Arno Coenen and Iris Roskam; the arch itself contains 228 apartments, with a four-level car park below ground, and the glass façades at both ends are described as the largest cable-net glass structure in Europe.

Local customs

• Visit the show cube house that is open to the public and see how furniture fits beneath the sloping walls
• browse the stalls in the Markthal and taste Dutch snacks
• see the excavated foundations displayed beside the central staircase.

Travel tips

• Admission and opening hours for the show cube house are as officially announced
• Markthal stall hours vary, so check on site. Both places are indoors or sheltered, so you can visit all year, even on rainy days
• in summer there are more outdoor events around Blaak.
• Rotterdam Blaak station (rail and metro) is directly beneath the Cube Houses
• you can reach Rotterdam by train from Amsterdam, The Hague and elsewhere, with timetables as officially announced.