Nederland - Wormerveer, Het Blaauwe Hof

Het Blaauwe Hof (Blaauw Court) is the only remaining court in the Netherlands with wooden houses. It was built in 1766 by order of "Dirck Janzs Blaauw", owner of several paper mills in Wormerveer. They were intended for his workers, who were allowed to live there under certain conditions: an early form of social housing.

Originally, the court was built in two rows of 10 houses with a bleaching field in the middle. Het Blaauwe Hof was restored in the 1970s and the front row of ten houses was demolished. Nowadays, the houses in the court are managed and rented by a housing association.