Help with complete novice

Firstly, I'm not a mechanical engineer or even anything close.

I'm designing a timber outbuilding, approx 3mx3m which will have a pitched roof with gables. What I want to do is be able to open the roof at the ridge (not unlike what George Clarke/Will Hardie did with their Sky Den) but I was thinking about 1m either side of the ridge rather than down to eaves level.

This is where I'm in new territory. I have no idea of how to go about it.

My limited and naive understanding has thought about a few different ideas. One was to use some form of screw jack mechanism that I could wind up or down manually. Another was to use some heavy duty gas struts.

Other than that I've no idea on what options are available, simply because I don't know what terminology I should be researching.

Can anyone help or point me into the right direction?