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

Today, I leave Munich Germany for my return trip to the US. This has been a really great experience – in no small part because of the skill and experience of our trip coordinator Lorraine.

As she has frequently pointed out, her successful trip should combine one third educational experience – learning about trends in the woodworking industry, seeing how other industry professionals in Europe work and learning about some of the equipment that is available to us, one third “camaraderie”, as she calls it, by which she refers to the interaction between all of us participants and the direct and indirect benefits we all gain from rubbing elbows for a week with industry colleagues. And one third, the culture – the opportunity to experience another country, another culture and to visit interesting places, expand our view of the world and our understanding of how it got to be as it is.

I’d also emphasize a fourth key element to the success of a trip like this – to have some one else, who really knows what they are doing, set it all up for you! This was particularly appreciated.

I haven’t mentioned the Homag groups’ line of products much. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical of participating in an organized trip sponsored by any one particular supplier as I thought the presentation would be too heavily slanted.

While we did get quite an education about the Homag Group and its products, I was impressed by the way our Homag hosts (and beer drinking buddies) tried to present a very broad range of solutions to common industry issues by using real world examples. These were demonstrated by the shops and factories we visited, not all of which were filled with Homag equipment.

For example, we witnessed first hand how a small, a mid-sized and then a very large company produced windows in Germany. We got to see the decisions each company had made about how to go about making their products, what production steps they used and what technology they were using.

This was a real eye opener for me. In some cases, I saw what were clearly better methods of production than Tanglewood currently uses and in other cases, I left thinking that we were actually doing certain steps more efficiently than what I had seen.

The companies that we visited were almost all extremely open about sharing what they were doing and answering all of our questions. It was very obvious that they all had an extremely positive relationship with Homag.

At least one participant, when asked about something unexpected that happened to them on the trip, remarked that they hadn’t expected to leave thinking they needed a new CNC machine!

But now I’m glad to return home. Spring was just barely evident in many of the areas we passed through and in some places there was still plenty of snow on the ground. We even drove through a few snow squalls on the way. I wasn’t expecting that.

Alan

I’ve been spending many hours looking out of the humongous front window of this fantastic futuristic looking tour bus. From my seat right at the front of the bus high on the upper level, I feel as though I’m on the bridge of a Star Cruiser as we pass through the many lovely small villages and towns in Bavaria and the surrounding Black Forest region. The factories that we have been visiting are spread out, many in tiny towns often nestled among a small residential cluster of homes!

We’ve visited small woodworking shops that produce a variety of items from wood windows to conservatories to furniture to cabinets using only a few machines and a small workforce. We’ve also visited several major manufacturing facilities with hundreds of workers. We’ve also spent time at the Homag plant and the Fritz plant near Stuttgart.

Interestingly enough, the machine manufacturing plants were some of the most useful visits for me. Because Homag and Friz produce a large percentage of their machines on a custom basis, their engineering design to manufacturing processes, though much larger in scale than Tanglewood Conservatories, had some real similarities.

I was intrigued to see them dealing with some of the same issues that are also on our plate and in fact I thought we had made more progress in some areas.

Last night there was dinner and great German beer at the famous Hofbrauhaus in Munich which is without a doubt, the largest beer hall I have ever seen! Three levels of raucous eating and drinking filled with many foreign tourists.

One of the facets of the plants that we visited which has impressed me was their regard for energy conservation. Costs of fuel are of course substantially higher here than in the US so they are forced to be more conservation minded. Most of the facilities made extensive use of day lighting- the use of large skylights and windows to illuminate their interior spaces. There was one building we went into that needed no artificial lights at all even though it was a fairly cloudy day. We can certainly learn a lesson from them on this subject.

Alan

Greeting from Wurzburg, Germany where I’ve traveled to take part in a nine day Tour of Technology with a group of industry pro’s looking at manufacturing technology solutions specifically geared towards window, door and solid wood production.

We will be touring facilities in the localities of Wurzburg, Stuttgart, and Munich and end our tour in Nurnberg at the Fensterbau Show, the International Window/Door Exhibition.

Our group is being graciously hosted by the Stiles Machinery Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan who represents numerous lines of machinery for the woodworking industry among which is Homag CNC machining centers.

So far, I’ve been here since Saturday and we’ve spent the weekend exploring the small city of Wurtzburg, population approximately 130,000 and sampling the very excellent German cuisine and beer. Lorraine, our CMP (certified meeting professional) has done the most amazing job in organizing the activities and picking out top notch accommodations and restaurants. Amazingly, this is the 30th international trip she has organized and participated in for Stiles.

Yesterday we had an extremely well informed professional tour guide show us some of the sights that included the heavily fortified fortress-residence (there was no conservatory) of the former Prince Bishop, religious and political head of the Franconia region. The area is now part of Bavaria, having been taken over sometime in the middle ages. We also toured the main Cathedral in the city, saw a lovely Gothic chapel and walked along the Main River which flows through the middle of the city. Spent lot’s of time walking around. It is a very pedestrian friendly town.

Today we start the off looking at woodshops of various sizes, capabilities and specialties. Wednesday we will spend all day at the Homag plant in Stuttgart learning about the different machines they offer.

It should be a very interesting week. Already I’ve gained many valuable insights just through the contact with the other tour participants. We come from all different areas of the US (including a contingent from Hawaii) and represent all different sizes companies and business specialties.

One of the things I’ve learned is just how much I can learn from talking with other people who do similar things as we do in our business. Not just about the specifics of production of wood parts, but about business strategies, management styles and lot’s of other great stuff that I’ll talk about throughout the week.

Alan

Not everything always goes perfectly…
Recently we hosted a couple at our facility in Maryland. They were visiting us as part of their research into various companies they might engage to design and build a conservatory for their home. We strongly encourage anyone thinking of working with Tanglewood to visit us here and see firsthand what we are all about.

We had a very nice visit together and in the course of showing them around our plant, they asked a very important question. I was talking about our insulated glass units, which we make ourselves and they asked: “What happens if a piece of insulated glass fails?”

This was of particular concern to them as they previously had a conservatory from another company that they had problems with.

My first kneejerk reaction was to talk about the quality of our conservatory products, particularly our insulated glass. The truth is that we have never had a single piece of the insulated glass that we have fabricated fail. This is an exceptional record for the industry and a testament to the level of importance we give to designing and producing not just the most beautiful conservatories in the world – but also the highest quality.

But this answer really did not address the underlying concern that they were voicing. The real question was- “What do you do, as a company when things don’t go right?”

Truth was, I had to admit, that very few of our conservatory projects, and I suspect anyone else’s, goes absolutely right all the time. There are always some issues that surface, some small, and some not so small, that no matter how hard we try, bite us.

I say this even though we have invested huge amounts of time and expense over many years to develop a multi-faceted approach to continuously improving our quality systems.

So the answer to their question was simply this: that when problems arise, we take care of them – and our customers.

I’ve got a lot more to say on this topic some of which I’ll post next time…

Alan

Continued…
It was two years later that the conservatory project began in earnest. The “just a greenhouse” idea had blossomed into a fantastic conservatory garden room with a built in spa and a fireplace in a luxuriant setting.

It had a curving copper roof with a glass cupola and was made from the same rich mahogany as the earlier cupola. You can see this lovely custom conservatory in the Our Portfolio section of our site. It is the #11 project.

All went well with the project, and Molly and Mike have now been enjoying their conservatory for several years when a call from them came to Nancy.

They were getting ready to remodel their kitchen and would like to have us design and build a large, 2 story bay window in the breakfast nook. A new entry door was also needed and the entire space was to be paneled with mahogany wainscoting and trim.

Molly is very fond of prairie-style design and asked if the windows could incorporate a pattern of leaded, stained glass to reflect this. We produced a number of different designs and color schemes however, forever an artist herself, Molly took to the work with colored pencil and markers and produced her own version, a more intricate and personal adaptation of one we had done.

At the same time, they let us know they were not yet finished with Tanglewood! Another renovation is planned for an alcove off their master bedroom and an existing sunroom that will become another conservatory room, a glass domed parlor – also in the same beautiful mahogany of which they are so fond.

Here’s a story. Tanglewood has just received its third commission from a single customer. I think this is the first time this has happened. Over the course of the last 5 years, Molly and Michael have become so enamored of Tanglewood, that they keep ordering more of our work for their lovely home.

When they first came to know of us, they dreamed of having a beautiful mahogany conservatory off in their garden. Molly had originally wanted “just a greenhouse” but when she began to research what was available, she came upon Tanglewood and instantly fell in love with the design and great craftsmanship. Mike was another story however – since he pays the bills!

After a trip to Tanglewood though, Mike was a new found convert. As they began to plan for their conservatory, another issue arose. The roof of the home that they had built several years earlier had sprung a leak. It was in a difficult spot, a skylight at the intersection of several roof slopes and they had had trouble with it from the very beginning.

Since the skylight lit the main entry foyer of their home, they decided to do something about it once and for all. They engaged Tanglewood to design a beautiful roof lantern for the spot and to remove the old existing skylight.

The new roof lantern was made from the same rich mahogany as their future conservatory and had stained glass panels on the sides as well. It was to be a mini version of the great conservatory to come.

Because it was quite high above the floor level, they decided to have us use our premier two part poly finish which is virtually maintenance free. The outside was clad with copper. The completion of the beautiful roof lantern only whet their appetite for the main course to come.

To be continued…

Tanglewood Conservatories will be closed on Friday March 21st for our annual company bowling tournament. After a hearty breakfast, the entire company will head out to the local bowling alley for the much awaited affair.

We hold this event at least once a year with everyone from the company in attendance. Besides being just plain fun, it’s a great opportunity to bring everyone together outside of the usual work environment – where everyone’s “role” is already well “rehearsed”.

Teams are purposely chosen with the aim of breaking down the distinctions between functional groups in the company. Someone from our shop staff will be paired with someone from the office or with someone from engineering staff. This gives everyone a great chance to get to know and compete with others that they would not normally mix with.

The experience can go a long way towards fostering greater cohesion and cooperation in our normal work conservatory projects. Because the custom conservatories we build are so different from one another, it requires a high degree of input from many individuals throughout the process. I’ve found that our ability to perform efficiently throughout this process is directly related to everyone’s sense of connection to it and thus to our ability to perform as a cohesive team.

We’ll post pictures afterwards of the winners soon.

In the summer, it’ll be a horseshoe pitching tournament!

-Alan

Continued…
We regularly get requests for projects that are truly different from the “standard” wood conservatory. For example, an architect recently called who was searching for a company to design and build a steel conservatory for his client.

He did not mean a wood conservatory with steel in it, but a conservatory made entirely from steel so that it had the authentic look of an original “old-world” glass house. It was to cover a swimming pool and be attached to an exquisitely designed French country manor home.

He hired Tanglewood to design a classical steel conservatory structure that had no woodwork either on the inside of the room or on the outside. The roof structure was designed using decoratively detailed steel parts that included actual steel rafters themselves.

Since we had not built a conservatory like this before, almost all of the details had to be conceived and thought out from scratch. We literally invented a completely new building system to accomplish what had been asked of us by the architect.

This is not so unusual for us and we enjoy the kind of challenge. The end result is always something quite spectacular in part because it is such a departure from what has been done before and also because it seems to open such new and exciting opportunities for interesting new projects. The finished conservatory always has such a unique, fresh look.

Another example of this was the Palmhouse project we recently completed and is shown on the second page of the Palmhouses & Greenhouses section of our site. The technique of using small overlapping flat panes of glass to form a curved geometric form was used extensively in the nineteenth century. Look at the images of the elaborate conservatories from that era. It’s hard not to marvel at their outrageous design creativity – not to mention their willingness to actually try to build some of those things!

The way those conservatory domes and other shapes were constructed utilized the same technique which we decided to attempt to revive. A lot of research and development time went into the project before we were comfortable that we could really pull it off.

When we did however, the resulting aesthetic is something that could not have been created by “faking it” – by which I mean trying to get something that looks sort of like the real thing, but misses the mark.

We’ve got some more interesting efforts of this kind in the works which I’ll fill you in on as they progress.

We often see the term “custom conservatory design” or “bespoke conservatories” used in the literature or advertisements of various companies. Often when we look at the products being offered, it’s hard to reconcile these terms with the products we see.

There seems to be a very wide range of meanings for this phrase and it is very important to understand exactly what a company means when they use it.

At one end of the spectrum there are companies that manufacture a highly standardized selection of products but will make modifications to them such as a change to a window size or a roof slope etc. All of the parts, pieces and details of the conservatory are standardized however.

They may claim to “never build the same room twice” which might be true however the level at which the customization occurs is very superficial. Their products look like variations of the same model, just the sizes and the shapes change. This is definitely NOT what we mean when we use the term “custom conservatory”.

Farther towards the other end of the spectrum, are companies that have standardized their basic building construction details but can offer a wider variety of “looks” by varying the styles of window muntions and the applied trim. By using variations in the geometry of the roof, a further level of “customization” is achieved.

Products from these suppliers will usually look like different siblings from the same family. A good example, though from another industry, is the suburban tract home which is ubiquitous these days. The homes have different facades, some with brick, some with siding, some with dormers here or there, some with a bay window or the garage on the other side. But somehow they all look the same – and underneath, they are all built exactly the same.

A truly custom home, designed by a good architect will be far more “custom” than this. His choice of size, shape, style, materials and details will be tailored to the needs and desires of his client. This is much closer to the concept of a “custom” or “bespoke” conservatory as we think of it. Even in this example however, the architect will usually be working with standard building techniques and systems and will be subject to their limitations.

Finally, there are the really revolutionary thinkers who are able to create entirely new building systems in response to their understanding and interpretation of a client’s needs. Often the client is not fully aware of the range and depth of solutions that the architect can visualize. An example of this level of creativity is Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain.

It is the same with conservatories and conservatory design – which I will discuss next time…

Coming soon to the Tanglewood Conservatories website – a completely redesigned portfolio section featuring many new images in our Conservatory Gallery, a section on our new Palm Houses and Greenhouses, which have become very popular and for the first time, an exclusive page called Domes, Lanterns and Skylights which showcases the work that we do with these specialized items.

Please be sure to check back in a couple of weeks to see these great new examples of conservatory design and artisan craftsmanship.

We will be expanding our conservatory website significantly over the next few months. Thanks for your interest.