Cool Dutch living

Cactus House, Rotterdam
Cool-looking would be a good enough reason for this building, but this housing design was created to maximise each apartment’s outdoor space and indoor sunlight. The splaying stack of slabs creates big terraces for gardening and the irregular shape allows sunlight to enter from multiple angles.

Cube House, Rotterdam
Living in a tilted house must be easier than it looks. Architect Piet Blom tipped a conventional house forty-five degrees and rested it upon a hexagon-shaped pole so that three sides face down and the other three face the sky. Each of the cube houses accommodates three floors: a living space including a kitchen, study and bathroom, the middle floor houses bedrooms and the top is the pyramid room that can act like an attic or viewing deck.

Wozoco Apartments, Amsterdam-Osdorp
A zoning law and blueprint mistake were the inspiration for this apartment complex. Dutch housing regulations require apartment construction to provide a certain amount of daylight to their tenants, but the architects forgot to plan for that. Their solution? To hang thirteen of the 100 units off the north facade of the block. The ingenious design saves ground floor space and allows enough sunlight to enter the east or west facade.