Monday, May 11, 2009

Dutch peculiarities

danger sign.... if the windmill is working, your car might be in trouble
ferry post
bird's nest on the back of an abandoned boat
wreck
to compensate for the greenhouse effect, the government planted a climate forest.... however, there were hardly any trees....
an alternative way of creating a hiker's rest

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Annals of architecture .... the cubus houses, Rotterdam

The architect Piet Blom designed these three floor cubic buildings in 1984.
The living space is rather limited. The rooms concentrate around a narrow, almost vertical central staircase.
My daughters, however, liked it a lot and asked to buy the one on sale. 200.000 Euro seems a fair price for dutch standards. But how about the furniture, which has to be specially adapted to the walls?
There are two a little verandas shared with the neighbouring houses. However, there is a big problem... the doors easily fall shut
Drastic warnings are supposed to be necessary to prevent cut-off fingers
http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/cubichouses/index.htm

Annals of transportation (5) .... streets of canals

"Binnendieze" Den Bosch
Like other dutch cities, Den Bosch had an extensive canal system, which enabled ships to come into the city and load and unload right behind the houses
However, since the city was not allowed to spread out and develop further, the townspeople were forced to built their houses on top of the canals. The result is a unique net of canals and tunnels
Thanks to the fare-sightedness of some people in the sixties, the canals were not dumped. Today the are a tourist attraction and can be toured by boats.... under bat nests and spider webs