Sunday 30 March 2008

Rotterdam, second largest town in The Netherlands



The White House
Rotterdam had the tallest building in Europe until 1923. The “Het Witte Huis” (The White House) was built in 1898 in American style, designed by architect W. Molenbroek. This 43-meter high building was built at a time when tall buildings like this were not a common sight; that’s why its architecture looks like an oversized house. “Het Witte Huis” stands out in the Rotterdam landscape. It is one of the few buildings that survived the bombardment in May 1940.


One of the major attractions in the Rotterdam architecture are the Cubic Houses, built in 1984 by Piet Biom. These are 39 cube-shaped dwellings which are still inhabited. If you’re curious to know how one can live in a house like this, you can visit one of them! Near the cubic houses there is the Rotterdam library, which also stands out for its pyramid-like shape: eight diminishing floors with yellow tubes around the building.

No comments: