Orangeries & Garden Rooms

A lighter, glazed alternative to a full brick-built extension

Orangeries and garden rooms sit between a conservatory and a full extension — more substantially built and better insulated than a traditional conservatory, but generally lighter and more glazed in construction than a full brick extension, with their own distinct look centred on a lantern roof or extensive glazing.

An orangery is traditionally characterised by substantial brick or masonry corner piers with a flat roof and central glazed lantern, giving a room with more solid wall structure and thermal mass than a conservatory but still built around bringing in significant natural light — a look with genuine architectural history behind it, distinct from a fully glazed conservatory or a solid brick extension. A garden room, as a more contemporary variant, can range from a similarly glazed, lantern-roofed structure to a more minimal, largely glass-walled room, and both are typically built to a specification closer to a full extension than a traditional conservatory in terms of insulation, foundations and year-round usability, rather than being a fair-weather space that's too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Foundations and structure are built to the same principles as any single-storey extension — proper footings sized to the loads involved, and where corner piers or masonry sections are included, these are built up in the same way a full extension's walls would be. What sets an orangery or garden room apart visually is the roof and glazing design — a central lantern, extensive glazed panels, and often bi-fold or sliding doors connecting to the garden — designed specifically to maximise the sense of light and connection to the outdoors that's the whole point of building this kind of space rather than a conventional extension.