Eagle-eyed Amsterdammers, and even tourists strolling along the city’s Westerstraat near the Jordaan, will notice that the house numbers on the north side of the street are missing from 54 to 70. What happened to the seven missing addresses in between? They’re not actually missing… at least, not anymore.
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If you look closely at the tiny gap between the rows of houses numbered 54 and 70, you’ll notice that seven miniature houses are stacked on top of each other, squeezed into the four-inch space between the buildings.
The missing numbers are due to the fact that there used to be a small courtyard through which seven of these houses’ numbers were accessible. This courtyard was subsequently closed off, and some of the houses were merged, resulting in seven numbers simply disappearing.
The tiny houses were installed as a whimsical response to the missing numbers between 54 and 70. Created by a local advertising agency, the colorful models are amazingly detailed and built in the same architectural style as the neighboring buildings. That’s some very Dutch creativity!
