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

Friday has arrived and we are ready for the big day. Last night we ate dinner at the Munich Hoffbrau Haus (in Hamburg), just down the street from our hotel. We thought we wouldn’t get another chance to savor the wonderful sweet sauerkraut that had become our favorite in the south, so this was an unexpected and welcome last chance.

We arrived at the convention hotel about 2 hours before I was to speak, in time to listen to a presentation by architect Michael Schroder about the development and use of new technologies in glass and façade design. His firm, Schroder Architects from Bremen, specializes in the design of buildings that are almost completely energy neutral, in other words, need almost no outside heating and cooling to maintain the interior environment.

This is a subject that is very dear to me and it was quite clear that the Germans are far ahead of us here in America. One of the technologies they are developing is heat absorbing glass panels that absorb the solar heat during the day thereby keeping the interior of the building cool, and then releasing the heat into the building or into the atmosphere at night. I was very impressed. Michael mentioned that in fact, the energy efficiency certification standards in the US are only now where they were in Germany 7 years ago.

I addressed the group of conservatory manufacturers next and spoke of our work and the importance of design in building our brand. I showed lots of pictures of Tanglewood projects being built in our shop, erected on site and then completely finished. I showed examples of the intensive design process we use and talked about how we developed our unique approach.

Here I am speaking to 40 members of the Wintergarten-Fashverband group in Hamburg.

I felt privileged to have been invited to share our work and wanted to give everyone something that was of as much value to them as what they had given Nancy and I during the preceding week. I only hope to have been successful in this.

Unexpected!!! After my talk, association director, Franz Wurm surprised Nancy and I by inducting Tanglewood Conservatories into the Wintergarten-Fashverband of Germany and Austria (www.wintergarten-fachverband.de) as an Honorary member, the first time this has been done for a company outside of Germany or Austria.

Nancy and Alan receive Certificate of Honorary Membership in the Wintergarten-Fashverband of Germany and Austria.

It was clear to us that the way the German conservatory manufacturers approach their market (and as a result, the design and production of their product) was completely different than the way Tanglewood does. There was a strong feeling among the association members that customers in Germany would not be open to building the larger, more elaborate projects that are Tanglewood’s specialty. Still, I believe that the essence of our work – that of the importance of the design process, was not lost on anyone.

There was also something else which impressed Nancy and I immensely. Here were the owners of 40 companies, all in competition with each other, sitting together, learning about their industry together and even socializing together in a spirit of mutual cooperation!

I believe this is due in large part to the skill of the association director Franz Wurm, who organizes the activities and keeps the organization moving forward but also speaks volumes about the genuine openness of the German people- something that Nancy and I have been experiencing first hand all week long.

After my presentation, we were invited to join the group for a fabulous dinner cruise and private guided tour through the Hamburg harbor via boat.

Old and new mix on Hamburg’s historic waterfront.

Beautiful glass and copper dome seen from the harbor.

I’m at ease after my talk – and a few glasses of excellent German beer.

How did this get here?

Nancy and Alan with Werner Jechnerer. Note we are holding gifts he gave us, a drinking mug and a bottle used for aging the beer he makes at his home brewery which as I mentioned before, is some of the best in Germany! Thank you friend.

Tomorrow morning we leave for home. We look forward to the task of implementing the many lessons learned on our trip and to a return visit.

Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland and all our wonderful new colleagues and dear friends! Thank you.

Alan

Nancy & Franz

Here Nancy and Franz Wurm, Director of the Wintergarten-Fachverband association, (I’m taking the picture) enjoy a drink at one of the many beautiful beergardens in Munich.

We’ve been in Munich for one day and have much to report.

One thing that always strikes me whenever I fly into Europe is the difference in the built landscape from what I’m used to seeing in the US. It is distinctively different from what you see flying across the American countryside.

In Europe, houses are clustered in much more distinct towns and villages, some very small yet still very distinct, whereas in the United States, they are spread out across the land. In Europe, there seems to be a much clearer line between where the houses and the town ends and where the farmland begins.

The ubiquitous American housing subdivision and the endless suburban sprawl, seems to be completely absent from the European landscape – a reality that makes me very satisfied whenever I notice it. I wonder though, what do the Europeans know about city and town planning that we don’t? How do they accomplish this and is there a danger that in the future, the American “cancer of the land” will spread there?

It might be that in Europe, land being in such short supply, over the generations people developed a sense of the importance and value of the farmland and are unwilling to desecrate the open spaces so easily.

Or perhaps, the European culture, so much older than the American, is used to the way cities and towns were laid out centuries ago when there was not the automobile to provide quick and easy transportation. Or maybe it was the need to cluster together for defensive purposes – but whatever the reason, the sense that the land is something not to be squandered is evident everywhere.

I don’t mean to say that people don’t need houses to live in and that new homes should not be built, but the European model of clustering them into villages and towns seems a much more logical and less wasteful approach.

Rather than digging up a piece of choice farmland in the middle of nowhere – which I see happen all over America, and plopping down the same model x,y,z houses at infinitum with no planning rhyme or reason other than how to get the most units onto an acre and maximize revenue from the development project, we should respect the age old principles of building places that we would really like to be in. I think we might be forced into this if we are to wake up to a more ecologically sustainable way of life, which is not a bad thing in my opinion.

Where would you rather spend a day off? In a “quaint” village or town in the Cotswolds, Tuscany or Maryland’s Eastern shore or the placeless subdivisions many call home.

Ok, enough of this.

Munich has wonderful beer gardens all over the city and the first thing we did when we arrived was to sample the local fare at one of the oldest and best known.

Beer (mixed with lemonade) is a favorite drink at mid day, and small sausages with the best sauerkraut I’ve ever had!

The people of Munich are some of the most laid-back and friendly I’ve encountered. We’ve had no trouble getting around knowing only two words of German, bitte (please) and danke (thank you).

We had dinner at a lovely little café near our hotel called Café Mozart. Our host named Armin took wonderful care of us, patiently translating the entire menu and recommending the best food, beer and schnapps! His suggestions where perfect, the beer, a dunkel (dark) Bavarian brew called Weizenbier with a yeasty overtone went down very smoothly!

Tomorrow, off to visit wintergarden factories with Franz, and then on to beautiful Wurtzburg.

Alan

Today we leave for Germany – in a short few hours. After an overnight trans-Atlantic flight, we will arrive in Munich, the “capital” of Bavaria, the beautiful southern region of the country which borders the Alps.

Our plan is to spend Sunday and Monday sightseeing in the city (sampling the wonderful local beers) and exploring the surrounding areas, then leave on Tuesday morning for Hamburg in the north of the country via car. Though only about an eight hour drive, we will take two days to make the trip as we will be making stops along the way to visit several companies that produce greenhouses, wintergardens and custom conservatories.

We will be joined for the first part of the trip by Mr. Franz Wurm who is Director of the Wintergarten-Fachverband association, the group that is hosting our visit. Wintergarten-Fachverband is an association comprised of about 40 member companies that specialize in producing high quality wood, glass and aluminum wintergardens,which are what conservatories and sunrooms are called in Germany. The group’s members are located mainly throughout Germany but some are in Austria as well.

I’m especially looking forward to my visit this time as the weather promises to be spectacular. Last year, I was in Munich in March and it was quite cold and rainy so we missed sitting outside in the many gardens.

On Tuesday we will visit the firm Jechnerer, www.jechnerer.de near Nuernberg who manufactures doors, windows, wintergardens and other specialty products. I understand they have a very nice showroom. Then on Tuesday afternoon, we will spend some time in Wurzburg a lovely mid-sized river town that I fell in love with during my last visit. (See my blogs from March/April 2008).

On Wednesday and Thursday, we’ll visit two firms, Steinbach, www.steinbach-wintergarten.de, whose specialty is wintergardens and the firm Hohnholt near Bremen www.winter-green.de, one of the few companies in Germany producing very high quality “English” style conservatories, poolhouses, sunrooms and orangeries.

We’ll spend Friday night in Hamburg and attend the Wintergarten-Fachverband association meeting on Friday to speak in front of their group about Tanglewood’s work designing and building conservatories, greenhouses and pool enclosures in the United States, the highlight of our trip.

I’ll keep in touch throughout our trip as it promises to be a very interesting week. The German companies design and build a different type of product and we both have much to share with each other about our manufacturing, our design and our markets.

It is easy to see that they are as passionate about their work and their companies as Nancy and I are about Tanglewood and many of their company founders share a similar background as myself – starting out as a carpenter many years ago!

Alan