Sometimes, when I visit a house of a client or friend, approaching the house I can see a nice winter garden.
When I then walk through the house the winter garden somehow seems to have disappeared. Instead I find a room like this one:
The windows are covered and the room is full of furniture bringing different functions into the room, like a dinner table plus chairs plus a cupboard. Or pieces that didn’t fit anywhere else (in this room a sofa plus 2 armchairs).
This really is a pity, because a winter garden is not just an extra room. It is a very special room. A winter garden is a room that can offer a maximum of light and space. And these are the two qualities people are mostly searching for in rooms: light and space. This qualities have high priority when it comes to the quality of rooms.
A winter garden not only provides maximum daylight, but also the feeling of width and space. Even a small winter garden feels like a large room, simply by giving you the possibility of letting your eyes wander around. The transparancy of the winter gardens “walls” gives you a feeling of being not limited by the room.
If the scenery around the winter garden is nature, happiness is perfect.
Studies proof, that nature means relaxation and recreation to us. One study even showed, that the sight you have through the hospitals windows influences the speed of recovery and the amount of pain killers patients need. The view of a park let’s your body heal quicker compared to a view to a wall. And there is clear scientific proof that a view to nature reduces arousal and raises concentration. Even to look at pictures of nature has these effects!
There are three factors underlying the recreational effect of nature:
- the feeling to have left the daily routine
- the chance for discoveries
- the impression of space and boundlessness
A small study from 2007 (Gross & Lane) showed that even in a small garden the feeling can occur to be far away.
Therefore I strongly recommend: If you have a winter garden: use it!
Use it as what it is meant to be: a room inside nature. A room full of daylight. A room of recreation. A resort inside your own house. For daily recreation.
This by the way is the very same room as on the pictures above. A beautiful room.