The human quality along with a sense of unity became something that was severely lacking in the designing and construction of buildings after the war. The Amsterdam Orphanage uses a design approach that goes against the functionalist's rigid approach, which focuses more on the rational function of a building rather than the individual identity in designs as well as the design in relation to the surrounding context. Aldo Van Eyck's design shows that he didn't fully embrace the CIAM's beliefs such as building on a human scale but losing the individual identity in favor of function, instead opting to moving away from traditional architecture with functionalism by attempting to combine both approaches. The design uses individual cubes that are connected together to form a complex shape with transitional spaces in between that lets the individual cubes to keep their own uniqueness, but allows flexibility in programming. The plan utilizes exterior and interior spaces by putting an emphasis on the circulation allowing the design to focus on the individual human scale. The placement of the building allows the orphanage to connect to the surrounding context by utilizing the rest of the open square site as a transitional space to the city, and to the exterior circulation that is formed by the surrounding context. The orphanage's design does break away from postwar architecture and reconnect with the city around it by mimicking how the "whole" is formed by the "individuals"much like in a city.
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