Conservatory Designs

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DESIGNS

There are as many different designs of conservatories and sunrooms as there are grains of sand on a beach. Everything can be individualized to the persons taste and budget. The existing structure of the house will in many ways determine the design of the conservatory.

In Ireland, during the housing boom, a conservatory became de rigueur on a new-build home. The conservatory business in Ireland has flourished in the last twenty years as the advent of better-insulated materials meant that the conservatory became a flexible extra reception room in many homes. In the summer, the room would be a bright airy relaxation room, generally linked to and opening out onto a patio area. In the winter, it could be transformed into a cosy family or entertainment room with the aid of electric or manual blinds in ceilings and windows and a modern zoned-heating system. In addition, the latest developments in solar heating panels can be used in the construction of the room to enhance heat generation, even in winter months.

However, no matter how many derivatives there are, any conservatory is based on three traditional methods of construction relevant to the era when the idea of a conservatory was born. The Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian styles are what all conservatories are modeled on today.

The imperialist notions and colonization of places such as Africa and India by the British were the inspiration for origin of conservatories and Orangeries. In their travels traders and military brought back exotic plants, cuttings and seeds and attempted to propagate and germinate these in a cold Northern hemisphere. This led to the construction of orangeries and the conservatory, which were heated to protect plants from the effects of the British winter. In order to succeed it was necessary to re-create the conditions that existed where they originated.

The original designs favoured brick or stone structures with wide glazed areas between columns and a solid roof. However, as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace, the use of cast iron, allied to ever cheaper rolled glass, allowed architects to design increasingly delicate buildings where glass was the predominant material. This trend culminated in the Crystal Palace designed to house the 1851 Exhibition in London. This was the first major example of modular construction in Europe and it became a bench mark for future design of the conservatory for the Victorian middle class, which became ever more ornate as tastes changed, providing an apt setting for formal tea parties and celebrations during the Edwardian period. The conservatories were grandiose affairs, a monument to the heresy and wanton waste of the British aristocracy. To this day in old run-down manors throughout the UK and a lesser extent Ireland, you can see the skeletons of what once were high-society follies.