Roof lantern Amsterdam, from canal house to IJburg

In Amsterdam, you buy a roof lantern from DagLichtDesign directly from the maker. In short: the roof lantern is made to measure in our own workshop in Barneveld, about 75 km from Amsterdam, and delivered on an agreed date or collected by you. There is no branch or showroom in the city, and the same goes for the whole of North Holland.

Which roof lantern suits an Amsterdam home?

Amsterdam's housing changes with each ring of the city. The canal belt has narrow, deep buildings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Around it lie nineteenth-century districts such as De Pijp and Oud-West, with flats stacked above one another. Between roughly 1910 and 1930 the Amsterdam School built whole neighbourhoods in brick, such as the Spaarndammerbuurt and the Rivierenbuurt. Further out lie Nieuw-West and IJburg.

What matters most is where the roof lantern goes. With a ground-floor flat and a garden, it is usually a rear extension, and there the mono-pitch roof lantern is the most popular type. If the extension meets the rear wall of the flats above, a wall-abutting lean-to adds side light as well as top light. On the top floor it is more often a flat roof, sometimes next to a roof terrace.

• Ground-floor flat with extension: mono-pitch or wall-abutting
• Flat roof of the top-floor flat: mono-pitch roof lantern
• Old plastic rooflight dome: mono-pitch as replacement
• Roof extension against a higher wall: wall-abutting lean-to

Canal houses, owners' associations and protected townscapes

The canal belt is a protected townscape and on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Many buildings are also listed. The roof lantern itself usually needs no separate permit, but the extension or roof extension often faces stricter rules in such an area. Always check with the municipality first, and read roof lanterns on listed buildings and in protected townscapes.

If you live in a flat, the roof is usually shared property of the owners' association (VvE). Its consent comes before the order. How to approach that is explained in roof lanterns in a flat or VvE. With a roof terrace, remember that a roof lantern is not a walking surface, so it belongs outside the walking route.

Roof lantern Amsterdam: delivery, parking and lifting

Carrying a roof lantern up a narrow Amsterdam staircase rarely works. It therefore often goes up the façade or over the roof, using a furniture lift or a crane. A crane or skip on the street usually needs permission from the municipality, and the city centre has rules for loading and unloading. Arrange this in good time.

DagLichtDesign delivers on an agreed date, so you can book the lifting crew and your contractor for the same moment. How that works is explained in roof lantern delivery in the Netherlands. Collecting it yourself in Barneveld is also possible, with no shipping costs.

Frequently asked questions