Dome

Detail, residential units abut corner shop, separated by wall and metal grille; use of De Stijl colors and modernist street lamp; Oud was affiliated with the De Stijl group, and began to collaborate with artists on housing projects. Oud was appointed in 1918 municipal architect of Rotterdam, a position he held until 1933, and which allowed him the chance to put his theories about mass housing into practice: he was particularly concerned with strip building. Working with the "strip" row house model in the Hook of Holland, he added curved shop windows at the end of the rows, so emphasizing further the horizontality of the solid balcony parapets; these became widely published images upon the project’s completion in 1927. The balconies divide lower and upper floor apartment units, but Oud treats the facades not as an accumulation of individual dwellings but as an architectural whole in which the street elevation functions as part of the urban fabric. In contrast the rear facade is more lively. White facades, yellow brick, blue doors and railings and red lampposts are a De Stijl influence, although he broke with the movement after this building. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 8/19/2015)