Tanglewood Conservatories Blog – Alan Stein's Writings about Custom Conservatory Design and More

An architectural rendering showing the new conservatory and greenhouse on the right side of this home.

This really cool project that we’ve recently begun work on is actually two projects in one. Attached to the client’s house is a new conservatory, then attached to the custom conservatory (with a bell shaped dome) is a new greenhouse.

The architect on the project contacted us and sent drawings of a scheme he developed and asked for some guidance.

We realized that the trick to designing these two great spaces was to make them relate to each other yet at the same time, be expressive of their very different functions. The conservatory (on the left) is a wood structure while the greenhouse (to the right) uses an exposed steel structural system. We wanted the two adjoining rooms to be quite different. A conservatory is usually used as a living space. People are the primary inhabitants. A greenhouse is for plants, though a wonderful place for people to spend time as well.

Many people will try to use a conservatory as a greenhouse because they like the beautiful details and design of conservatories and there are not many greenhouse products available that have the same level of attention given to their design. Historically, the great conservatories of the nineteenth century were all horticultural houses. Only in the last thirty years did the idea of using a “conservatory” as a living room type space become popular (and feasible).

Working with the architect, we produced drawings of several design solutions and met with the entire team to decide which was best. We gave the greenhouse the same degree of design effort as the custom conservatory.

For example, we created eyebrow windows, a very unusual and distinctive feature for the greenhouse, on each side of the new room, with the lapped glass domed roof curving above them.

We will be following the progress of this unique job through the shop and will continue to keep everyone posted on our work.

Alan

The May issue of Garden Design magazine beat me to the punch with the publication of a new Tanglewood project. On page 34, in their section “Style”, there is a photo of a conservatory project we completed which was designed as an office for a publisher and his wife.

An office space is not a usual use for a custom conservatory and this one is quite special. Garden Design magazine calls it a “Dream Office”. There a custom built desk-for-two and a seating arrangement of Mies chairs on a Tibetan carpet all under the ethereal delicacy of an original Calder mobile!

Garden Design notes: “If prefabricated-building kits lie on one end of the spectrum, Tanglewood Conservatories, a Maryland based atelier specializing in the design and construction of custom conservatories and greenhouses, is at the other.”

They go on to say: “Whether a conservatory or a nineteenth-century copper dome you’re after, Tanglewood’s work is the stuff dream offices are made of.”

I had intended to add several new pages to the portfolio section of our website soon- one of which to showcase this particular project. In the meantime, you can see the preview in print.

While thumbing through the magazine, I noticed in the same “Style” section another interesting “office”. It’s an original piece of furniture from the Belgian design firm Colect (011-32-51-40-83-37) called B-uro. The concept behind the piece “was to create a piece of office furniture that doesn’t feel like office furniture.”

With its modern structural simplicity, it reminds me of some of my experimental furniture designs from architecture school. I was very interested in creating beautiful furniture by modifying cardboard boxes into sculptural as well as functional forms. I actually built myself a desk which served me well for quite a few years. I loved the simplicity and the “Small is Beautiful” nature if it- in addition to the fact that it was cheap and I was a student on limited means!

“The B-ero design has an abstract, decorative quality. That one would slip into it to polish off some office paperwork- seems entirely secondary!”

I agree.

Alan

We recently completed an interesting project outside of Toronto, Canada. The owners had purchased a log cabin on a beautiful wooded property and added a very contemporary addition which features a “silo” with a glass domed observation deck at the top.

On the interior of the silo is a spiral staircase that ascends to a small round room at the top covered by the glass dome. The room is a 13’ diameter retreat, just big enough for the owners to escape from earth and watch stars light up the night sky, clouds sail past and the sun set over the trees on the distant horizon.

For years people have inquired if we had ever built such a room (a domed silo conservatory) but we never had, so I was delighted when Jon Goulding, the in-house designer at the time for Matthew Sapera Fine Homes in Toronto, first called and inquired.

Jon was great to work with. We had to make sure the room functioned as an actual usable space- for example, there needed to be enough head room at the top of the stairs to meet code, and Jon wanted it to have just the right look. The dome is one half of a sphere and there are twelve windows around its base. We settled on twelve facets because on the one hand, we didn’t want it to have too many facets- then it would seem too crowded and the windows would be too narrow for the view, but on the other hand, if there were not enough facets, the dome would not seem “round”.

Working with Jon, we came up with a good compromise, a terrific, unique project and another very satisfied customer.

Jon Goulding’s background includes over 20 years of education and experience in fine art, architecture, construction and film & television art direction. Jon operates Goulding Design Inc., a Toronto-based studio focused on custom residential design of traditionally inspired and finely detailed city and country homes. Projects include both buildings and interiors for alterations, renovation/additions and new-built homes, as well as specialty buildings including coach houses, stables, pool, garden and guest houses. Scope of work includes full project support from conceptual design, through all municipal approvals, to construction drawings and consultant coordination with an emphasis on detail, materials and craftsmanship.

Goulding Design Inc. / 245 Bessborough Drive, Toronto, Ontario M4G 3K4 / Jon Goulding, Principal / Tel: 416 571-1735 / email: jon@gouldingdesign.com / website: www.gouldingdesign.com

Here is a picture of a very odd window which some of our shop guys just finished building. Notice that none of the corners are 90 degree right angles! It is not an optical illusion. This would not be all that odd- except that the window opens. It is very difficult to make an operable window that does not have a regular geometry.

The top edge of this window follows the roofline of a dormer, the lower edge follows the roofline of the main house below and the short side and the side opposite it are parallel to each other.

The window is part of a shipment of windows that went along with one of our conservatory projects, but was for a different part of the house.

The client chose Tanglewood for the project in part because of our ability and willingness to tackle difficult, unusual requests such as the above window. This window took several attempts and many design changes before we could get it to work properly.

The discovery and invention of new things is one of the parts of our business that I like the most. Whether it is a funky window or a very different conservatory design or a new way of manufacturing that is more efficient, the process of continually inventing and improving upon what we do here at Tanglewood is very exciting for me.

There is of course a certain amount of risk that a company wanting to pursue a more conservative path would not incur. Sometime we get bitten, but not often. Over the years we’ve learned how to approach the unusual and we gathered people around us who share our interest and vision.

Not long ago, a potential client who wanted a really unusual greenhouse expressed his concern because we candidly admitted that we had not done anything like it before. I told him “we had never done anything like it before- but we do it all the time”. He understood what I meant- that we do what we’ve never done before all the time and he could see that we know how to do it!

Impressed with our work, which he could clearly see had the quality he was looking for, he gave us the job. Skeptical at first, he is now one of our most ardent proponents.

I hope we never stop “doing what we’ve never done before” here at Tanglewood. Many of our customers and friends do as well.

Alan