Een gat in de lucht II

If you just keep climbing the stairs in a terraced house, higher and higher, at some point you arrive in a space between gutter and ridge, under a sloping roof, above the street, where the terraced house starts to feel a bit like an apartment. There is more light, and the view shifts: no longer the face-to-face encounter with the street below, but a rooftop landscape, something layered, with perhaps even a distant view. You do need to make an effort though, sloped roofs are notoriously closed-off. You could, for instance, make a hole.

A hole is, by nature, empty. It only begins to take form at the edge, where it stops being a hole. This one spans the full width of the house. Which means the window can too. At the front, the void is slightly pulled back, acting as a balustrade, and keeping clear of the gutter line. It doesn’t extend all the way to the ridge either, it stops just before. Every edge of the hole is finished in the same colour: window frame, roof soffit, insulated wall, exterior cupboard, all consistent, leaving no room for doubt. The perimeter is clearly defined. The window does its own thing. It folds away slightly from the void, creating a canopy. At the fold, the window opens on the corner. Behind it: a platform to linger. The platform connects at the same level as the terrace. Two steps down: the bedroom. Away from the listed street façade, the roof is raised slightly here. The historic view was there all along, hidden behind the tiles. Now you can see it, through the hole.