An opkamer is a room that sits a few steps higher than the rooms around it, because a half-sunken cellar has been built underneath. You find them in old Dutch farmhouses, town houses and canal houses, above all in areas with a high water table.
The logic is simple. Where groundwater stands high, a cellar could not go deep enough without flooding. So it was built half above ground level. That pushes the floor above it up, and you reach the resulting room by three to six steps: the opkamer.
Why it was built
- A dry cellar. The cellar floor stays above or close to the water table, limiting leakage and rising damp.
- Cool storage. The half-sunken cellar was the store for dairy, potatoes and preserves.
- Status. In a farmhouse the opkamer was often the best room: the parlour or the farmer’s bedroom, complete with a box bed.
- Daylight in the cellar. Because the cellar projects partly above ground, small cellar windows fit in.
What to watch when renovating
- Headroom. Both the cellar and the opkamer itself are often low. Habitable rooms have minimum ceiling height requirements under building regulations, and many opkamers sit close to or below them. Check what applies to existing buildings in your jurisdiction before you plan a use change.
- The steps. A few loose steps in the middle of a dwelling are a trip hazard. Provide adequate going, a clear change of colour or material, and a handrail where possible.
- Damp in the cellar. Old cellars rarely have a damp-proof membrane under the floor. Insulating internally without ventilation invites mould; ventilate the cellar well rather than sealing it up.
- Insulating the opkamer floor. It sits above a cold, ventilated cellar. Insulating from the cellar side is usually easiest and delivers comfort immediately.
- Heritage status. In a listed building the opkamer and its cellar are often part of what makes the building significant. Talk to the conservation officer before you level out the change in floor level.
Rule of thumb: do not remove an opkamer casually. You lose not only the cellar, but often the load-bearing structure that sits on the cellar walls.
Related terms
- Cellar
- Basement storey
- Going
- Listed building
- Water table
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