The job: An existing customer living in an old hillside farmhouse, wanted an orangery where she could grow tropical fruit throughout the Scottish year.
Our approach: A location was chosen, framed by the walls of old farm buildings, one of which featured a rough curve.
This sparked the idea of creating a large circular glasshouse, with its back and circumference determined by this wall section. When we presented our customer with our hand-drawn design, they were delighted.
Using the curve of the wall we established the radius and central point of the building. From this we marked out the foundations and established the dimensions for the individual components of the build.
While our joiners were manufacturing these in our Doune workshop, onsite we set to building the foundations, using natural stone reclaimed from the ruins of the old farm buildings.
Next, we erected the wall panels, before cutting and fitting the spoke of rafters. This timber chosen was western red-cedar, a soft red-brown North American timber. Valued for its distinctive appearance, aroma and resistance to extreme weather conditions, it is often used for sailboats, kayaks, as well as wall cladding and outdoor buildings.
Finally we installed all the glazing works, using safety glass throughout, crowning all with a finial turned on our workshop lathe - a graceful finishing touch to a graceful space.
What our site manager said:
We are very proud of our design and construction of this unique building, which has exceeded all expectations.
