Architect J.J.P. Oud designed this housing block in 1924 when he was City Architect to Rotterdam, of which the Hook of Holland is part of. Building took place shortly after in 1926-1927. This was Oud’s first design in a series of white housing projects and it earned him immediate international recognition. The elongated wall of housing is divided into two equal parts, their rounded ends containing shops on the ground floor with all-glass fronts. Above the gateway in the block’s centre was a library. The block otherwise consists of dwellings, three-room units on the ground floor and an alternation of two- and four-room units on the upper level.
