In the 1920s and 30s, numer­ous build­ings were cre­at­ed in Rot­ter­dam that are now con­sid­ered mod­ern clas­sics: fac­to­ries, hous­ing areas and indus­tri­al­ists’ vil­las, most­ly in the inter­na­tion­al style. The most press­ing issue, how­ev­er, was work­ers’ hous­ing, and there­fore pro­gres­sive archi­tects devel­oped new hous­ing typolo­gies for the work­ing class­es. De Kiefhoek is a vil­lage-like neigh­bour­hood that was built on an incred­i­bly low bud­get, but was archi­tec­tural­ly ground­break­ing. It lies in the south of Rot­ter­dam, which is con­nect­ed to the north­ern shore via the Maas­tun­nel, opened in 1941. On the oth­er side, In the work­ers’ quar­ter of Span­gen there are res­i­den­tial build­ings in var­i­ous stages of rede­vel­op­ment, includ­ing the award-win­ning Jus­tus van Effen­block. After years of neglect, it was ren­o­vat­ed in an exem­plary man­ner a few years ago.