Reiken VI (sluier)

A house in a neighbourhood. And something’s going on. The neighbourhood seems to have silently agreed upon its own domestic style: a style of houses. All homes are defined by their pronounced roofs and emphatic gutters. There, in that same neighbourhood, stands a semi-detached house. It may have three free façades, but it isn’t all that free. It’s compact. It’s dark. It’s chopped up. A family with three children wants to reach for the sky. The grandfather built the house himself. Now the father and son will build it together. Master builder and master architect meet. We hold the pencil together.

The free façades are freed, on two sides. Outside, all extensions are stripped away. Inside, the mass is pierced, both horizontally and vertically. To veil is to shield and to let through. The beautiful brickwork architecture remains. Insulation is introduced through a complex duplex system, within and between the structure.

A new roof crowns the house. The roof is a study of the neighbourhood, in the superlative. An exaggeration, a distortion, an ode. Can a reprise also be an improvement? Not merely in image, quite the opposite. Three children and three façades: we agree on three identical dormers. Playful, triangular windows sparkle at the tips. The roof dances; first in rhythm, then not at all! It tumbles downward, a sudden waterfall of gleaming tiles diving into the depth. Where the brick façade had faded, the roof becomes wall. A skylight simply becomes a window. Fear not, the gutter gathers it all and sweeps it back skyward. A mountain landscape, glistening with dew. Dark green tiles like mossy slopes.