Article of 9 November 2020, Wintergarden

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What shall we do with the previous owner’s relics? What shall we do with an unused, roofed-over interior courtyard? Where shall we put a summer kitchen? How can we integrate something new into what’s already there?  Such questions and challenges crop up when alterations are to be made.
And what shall we do with the citrus trees in autumn before the first frost?

Our growing collection of citrus trees needs a winter quarter. Citrus plants grow here splendidly but are not winter-proof. They like light in winter (never too dark) and like it cool (never too warm).

So a small orangery has been installed here in the roofed-over courtyard. The combination of metal and glass endows a graphic lightness of appearance to the stable structure.
Stairways to the workshop and apartment were integrated into the construction, and space was created for the summer kitchen. The intermediate ceiling enlarges the area for the upper apartments. The ascending air extracted from the cellar suffices to keep the wintergarden frost-proof.

After the last cold night in spring the mobile glass partition in the orangery disappears in the construction rather like a railway switching station, opening up the courtyard to the garden.
Lemon, orange, tangerine, lime, kumquat, olive and non-winterproof herbs move outside again, just in time for the busy bees to buzz over and get to work again.

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