Rotterdam – staying on a ship and exploring cube houses

Ok, let me start with making a little confession.  I am absolutely rubbish when it comes to planning our holidays! O yes!

Last time we went to Poland by car, we decided to stop in Amsterdam for three days, just to have an opportunity to explore the town. I booked 3 nights in a hotel and was sure all is sorted. Then, about a week before we went, I noticed, that we do not really have any accommodation booked for one night! My calculations went through the roof. The hotel which I booked for us months before was now quite expansive, so I needed to find an alternative. And I did! We decided to stop for one night in Rotterdam, and I am really glad we did!

The hotel we stopped by was called SS Rotterdam, and it is considered one of the best hotels in Rotterdam. And I could not agree more! The hotel has been converted from a huge ship, and the interiors are kept in 1950’s! The staff is lovely and it was one of the best values for money! Our room/cabin was very comfortable and cosy and we could explore the ship and admire sunset from the upper deck. They even have an exhibition going on which was quite interesting too.

Rotterdam is full of amazing buildings. Nederlanders are absolutely mental (in a positive way) with their designs! We have never seen so many quirky and entertaining buildings! Amsterdam is a different story all together! These two cities are like two different planets – Rotterdam bursting with modern designs and Amsterdam preserving a charm of an old town with its old  town houses.

 

 

 

 

I have heard about Cube Houses and as it happens we needed to stay in Rotterdam, I was rather keen on seeing them. And they did not disappoint! 

They were design by Piet Blom – who was a Dutch architect and designed Cube Houses with “living as an urban roof” concept in mind. He took a cube and twisted it 45 degrees, then put it on a pylon. That way he wanted to present a village within a city – each house represents a tree and all of them – a forest.

The use of space is amazing! Although a little bit of claustrophobic inside is rather wisely designed.  Specially made furniture are fitting all corners and not even a tiny little usable surface is wasted. 

They are curious little thing. One of the owners was disturbed by visitors so often that he decided to open his house for visitors and you are now able to poke around to see how clever the design is.

Amazingly there are three floors! Living room and kitchen are located on the first floor, two bedrooms and bathroom are on a second and third small bedroom is at the top floor – which is used as a small garden.

The walls and windows are angled at 54.7 degrees. The whole apartment is around 100 square meters, however about a quarter of the space cannot be used.

It is truly remarkable construction, worth visiting. It will make you wonder about what we can design 🙂

ss Rotterdam

Cube house