Terraced houses in Kiefhoek

JJP Oud, Kiefhoek district in Rotterdam Holland, 1925-1930

The Kiefhoek housing estate in Rotterdam comprises 294 residential units, two shops, two raised playgrounds and a church. The plan designed by Oud in 1925 and built between 1928 and 1930, included housing intended for less affluent working families. The plan is based on elongated rows of standardised two-storey units. Having this rational basis in response to the very different limits of the available area has given rise to a varied urban plan. In the southern part, the oblique edge has led Oud to design rounded corners in the acute angle of two open blocks. Containing shops, these rounded corners are very similar to those of Oud's Hook of Holland dwellings of a year earlier. The facades are also similar. The horizontally articulated facade combines a lower band of grey-framed glass with bands of yellow brick. A central band rendered white divides this from a similarly uninterrupted band of yellow containing windows at the upper level. The front gardens are separated from each other by yellow brick walls and fenced with blue steel railings. Unlike the Hook of Holland housing, the front and rear elevations get the same treatment here. The compact plan (7,5 x 4,1 m.) consists of a living room and entrance porch on the street side on the ground floor and a kitchen overlooking the garden. A semi-circular staircase leads to an upper level of three bedrooms. Lack of funds meant that the plans for facilities such as a shower, sink, ironing board and utility room were abandoned. Despite this, Oud used the limited means and space available to create a fully-fledged dwelling and enhance the “Existenzminimum” (minimum subsistence level) with an architectural bonus. Both the urban design and the housing plans were rightly met with international acclaim. The neighborhood was completely demolished and then rebuilt, keeping as close to the original design as possible.