Let us look to history for ideas on modern home improvement

As more people are looking for ways to increase the value of their homes or improve their living space due to the well documented recent downturn in the housing market, you could do a lot worse than consider the possibility of installing a Conservatory or an Orangery.

But what is the difference between the two and what leads to their enduring fascination with householders? To answer these questions we need to go back into history and examine the structures’ origins.

The Conservatory did exactly what it said on the tin originally. The name came from a combination of Latin and Italian and was quite literally a place to store and preserve food and was traditionally thought of as an un-glazed structure. It was only later, with the introduction of glazed structures that they were used to house and protect plants from the cold weather, but even then we would understand them better if we thought of them to be more like greenhouses or glasshouses.

Over time it appears they evolved into the structure we know and love today that attach to the side of the house and which acts as a pleasant place to sit, not only in summer where they remain cooler than the rest of the house but also in Winter when they have the reverse effect of generally being warmer.

Probably the greatest example of a glass house from an engineering perspective is that of the crystal palace at the time of the great exhibition in 1851. Taking 22 weeks to erect and covering 19 acres it had 293,635 panes of glass and at the time was the largest enclosed space on earth. I think it is fair to say you would need a pretty large house to consider having a conservatory like that on the side.

Orangeries, although being similar in concept to the Conservatory do have some distinct differences. For instance they are generally found within the borders of a garden with an outer door, rather than being attached to the house like a modern conservatory is.

Some of the more elaborate Orangeries down the ages would resemble large glazed buildings in their own right and were a definite symbol of the elite, being incorporated within the garden design of the wealthier people who often had their own private exotic gardens. This popularity led to advancements in the construction technology making them bigger and better, leading to such innovations as under floor heating and windows that opened in the roof for ventilation.

Of course the original purpose of Orangeries is quite self explanatory. They were houses literally used to cultivate and grow exotic plants and fruits that the elite could show off but they would also quite often have fountains, grottos and areas in which to entertain guests when the weather took a turn for the worse. In modern times we are fortunate that we can now still take some of the original concepts, if maybe on a more modest scale, and build ourselves a place within the garden that we can use for social interaction or even somewhere to go and escape from the world.

Going back to the original point that was made at the beginning about building a glazed structure within the boundary of your home, to either improve your standard of living, your house value or indeed both. Whichever you decide upon will ultimately come down to such details as space and accessibility but the good news is that there are some companies, especially on the internet, that are happy to put together bespoke plans to suit your individual needs, rather than make you try to fit a pre-fabricated design into the space that you have available. If you are still unsure whether a Conservatory or Orangery is for you then take comfort in the fact that several hundred years worth of design and popularity is unlikely to be wrong.