Little Boxes

My Dad sent me this link - this is what Modern Architecture & Design - and his trip to the Netherlands made him think of! It's actually pretty funny.

Corner House at the yellow bike path.

Located in Grasrijk, Meerhoven, Eindhoven.


side view.
Front of house. As I've said before - often times the corner house of a given group of row houses is generally more unique and one-of-a-kind. I quite prefer this one. Although they've got a small yard - It's just so blocky. Like blocks stacked on top of each other. What a fun house.

Opposite the Yellow Bike Path

Located in Grasrijk, Meerhoven, Eindhoven
Across from the Yellow bike path (see previous post):

More modern dwellings - with the facade of a red beam going across the front of the homes. Pretty cool, indeed.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road!

Located in Grasrijk, Meerhoven, Eindhoven
along a yellow bike path:

I don't know what the purpose of a yellow bike path is. At some point it crosses over a red bike path. All the bike paths are red here so I'm not certain what the purpose of the yellow one is.

Even on a gloomy day - such as today - these yellow and red houses stand out and look oh so cheerful! Across the street we have several more similar houses - but they don't have the yellow bike path in front - just a street with some on street parking - and some large mature trees in between as well. I'll post those next.

Bay windows?

Located in Grasrijk, Meerhoven, Eindhoven





I love these ones. Those windows are so nice. Most people just make it a spare room - I think that would make a lovely bed room. I don't think it would get to hot either because these houses all face north. I can't decide which ones I like better but I think I like the charcoal gray ones better but the light yellow brick ones are nice too.

I like how they alternate between 2-story homes and 3-story homes. The corner homes are always more unique and one-of-a-kind on any set of homes in this neighborhood it seems. Bummer thing about that corner house is it doesn't have that awesome spare room with that bay window? Or whatever it's called - I like it.

Not boring - Row houses

Located in Zandrijk, Meerhoven, Eindhoven
along the bus lane:

Here is the back of the houses - in white - a nice contrast from that dark color at the front.

The houses in the front - not boring at all. Those windows above the door have the stairway and hallway behind it. Looks pretty cool at night when they have lights on. Also, all that light flooding the hallway probably makes it feel pretty open inside.

These ones come on the market all the time - they sell pretty fast, too.

3 story houses and bungalows connected

Located in Zandrijk, Meerhoven, Eindhoven.





Here they alternate the dark brown 3 story houses with the white bungalows. Every other house. Again, an interesting design because it seems more spacious - instead of one tall wall of 3 story row homes - which I will picture in a later post.

The bungalows, when they come on the market for sale - seem to have trouble selling - from what I've seen. It seems that people who buy a bungalow - do not want to be squished up against a 3 story home - less privacy probably.

I like the 3 story houses though, they look like a tall wedge of cheese - wrong color though. And I like the narrow skinny windows - horizontal windows... though it doesn't seem like they would get enough light with all those bricks. They are nice looking anyways.

Cube Houses in Helmond

According to wikipedia: Piet Blom (Feb 8, 1934, Amsterdam – Jun 8, 1999, Denmark) was a Dutch architect best known for his 'Kubuswoningen' (Cube houses) built in Helmond in the mid-1970s and in Rotterdam in the early 1980s. He studied at the Amsterdam Academy of Building-Arts as a student of Aldo van Eyck. [Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Blom"]

I have pictured here the Helmond Cube House. There are many more photos available online of the kubuswoningen in Rotterdam. I plan to see those one day. I mean, I've seen them, but there is one guy that offers a tour through one of the cube homes and that's what I plan to see one day. He offers this tour for a small fee - 3 euros I think - and more information can be found on that here: http://www.kubuswoning.nl/introkubus2.html

In the Helmond Kubuswoningen - there are 3 houses attached. The entrance is through the "trunk" at the bottom. According to kubuswoning.nl there are three levels I believe. Very wild stuff here - I look forward to my future tour inside :-)

Connected homes in white

Located in Zandrijk, Meerhoven, Eindhoven.
Click on image to zoom in!

Why do this blog?

When most people think of the Netherlands they think of wooden shoes, tulips, windmills, bicycles, and then some people think of only Amsterdam - smoking weed, and the red light district... but something else totally unique to the Netherlands in my opinion is the modern architecture and designs of homes. It's usually only million dollar homes or public buildings like libraries and such that you see unique modern design... but in the Netherlands in the last 20 years or so they have been building a lot of very modern homes - and not just the high end price classes - but even the more affordable housing - everything is modern here now... and that is what i'd like to capture in my blog with photos and such.

You know, if you want to be an architect and design interesting modern designs - you probably have a hard time in the U.S. getting a job and doing what you want and love to do - but it's so cool that they are actually building modern homes over here - i want to capture that a bit.

I will have photos of some million dollar homes (or million euro homes) but mostly I just want to show the lower price class homes or in other words - the row houses or town houses as that may be. As most people know, the Netherlands is a small country - and with the way they set regulations - like you can only build in certain areas - most of the homes tend to be squished together. So it's really only the million euro homes that are free standing - while everthing else is connected in some way - or atleast - very close to their neighbor... but that can make things interesting in design.

Luckily, I'm living in one of those newer neighborhoods where everthing is quite new - modern and interesting - so I will have quite a lot to post in the coming months.

I will also occassionally post photos of other unique designs - buildings and such, but mainly I'm going to focus on homes.