Housing Kiefhoek

J. J. P. Oud, Kiefhoek district in Rotterdam Holland, 1925-1930

The Kiefhoek residential complex 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 for less well-off working families. The plan is based on elongated rows of standardized two-story 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 led Oud to draw rounded corners in the acute corner of two open blocks. Containing shops, these rounded corners are very similar to those of Oud's Hook of Holland homes from a year earlier. The facades are also similar. The horizontally articulated facade combines a lower band of gray framed glass with bands of yellow brick. A central band made white divides this from a similarly unbroken band of yellow containing windows on 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 on the ground floor of a living room and entrance porch on the street side and a kitchen overlooking the garden. A semicircular staircase leads to an upper level of three bedrooms. The lack of funds has resulted in the abandonment of floors for facilities such as shower, sink, ironing board and service hatch. Despite this, Oud used the limited means and space available to create a full-fledged dwelling and upgrade the "Existenzminimum" (minimum subsistence level) with an architectural bonus. Both the urban project and the housing plans were rightly received with international acclaim. The neighborhood was completely demolished and then rebuilt, keeping as close as possible to the original project.