The RainShine House by Robert M. Cain
Architect Robert M. Cain has designed the RainShine house, located in Decatur, Georgia.
The RainShine House was designed for a couple as their retirement residence with provision for visiting children and extended family members. One of the most nontoxic new, single-family houses in the United States, the house has achieved and exceeded the highest level of “green architecture” possible through the United States Green Building Council’s LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] for Homes Pilot Program. It is the first modernist residence to achieve the much-coveted LEED Platinum level in the Southeastern United States.
Full description after the photos….
The RainShine House by Robert M. Cain
The RainShine house is a two-story, 2800-square foot, three-bedroom, 3-1/2 bath home on a 1/3-acre infill lot. RainShine is contemporary in design and is named for key design features. The living room, dining, kitchen and guest bedrooms are sheltered by a unique butterfly roof structured with steel beams spanned by exposed 1- 1/2” tongue-and-groove wood decking. The roof floats above continuous clerestories allowing light to flood into the interior. Light shelves around the clerestory sills bounce and diffuse natural light throughout the interior. The butterfly roof is designed to capture rainfall for a rain harvest system located in the basement (Rain) and is oriented to maximize southern exposure for a roof mounted photovoltaic system (Shine). The butterfly design, with it’s inverted gable, simplifies rainwater collection, eliminates extensive gutter and downspout systems and the associated maintenance headaches common in conventional gabled or hip roofed homes. The home features large expanses of thermally broken glazing with solar shades and operable windows. Spaces are defined by “thick walls” containing storage, book shelves, niches, pass-throughs, closets, audio visual equipment, systems, etc. Except at certain utility areas, interior walls stop short of the ceilings and are topped by glazing, thus enhancing the floating roof effect.
Visit the website of architect Robert M. Cain – here.
Andrew Wagner on 15 Jul 2009 at 9:38 pm #
Excellent work.
It’s great to see a house that faces the street without a big garage door thrust out front. This house presents a nice friendly face to the neighborhood.
I love the post and beam framing. Either with wood, or in this case with steel, you can rarely go wrong with post and beam framing.
Butterfly roofs are always nice, and this one actually has an added function of managing rainwater? Excellent.
Of course all the environmentally friendly features are a great bonus. Good job Robert Cain!
Lance on 16 Jul 2009 at 2:42 am #
Indeed! This house isn’t far from our condo at the AZ2 lofts, another modern building in the area, and I fell in love with it the first moment I saw it. It’s such a large open space, but it feels intimate with all of the soft tones, sheens and textures on every surface. And it’s uber green too. What’s not to love?
Curmudgeon on 17 Jul 2009 at 7:42 am #
This is truly a beautifully designed and crafted house, and while my personal taste is more traditional, I certainly appreciate the quality of this project. Meeting LEED Platinum certification is another great accomplishment, but I am curious about how some of the aesthetic decisions affected the overall efficiency of the building. Two areas that stand out to me is are the large windows, specifically those that are unshaded on the east and west faces. The large amount of glazing likely causes significant heat gain in the summer and loss in the winter, requiring more energy to heat and cool. I am aware that the house is conditioned by a Geothermal system which is very efficient, however it still does use energy to run pumps and fans. Also, I expect that infrared images of the metal frames that extend from the interior to the exterior would show significant thermal bridging, adding to heat gain and loss in these areas. Even given these concerns, this house likely out performs virtually any other new house, but I think that it is important to consider the effect they have on the building’s performance.
city_boy on 21 Jul 2009 at 3:26 pm #
OOH. good space. good light. seems cozy but but not confining. i want to move in. …now.
hZ! on 13 Nov 2009 at 11:33 pm #
Lovely, if not very versatile, spaces broken up to my mind unnecessarily, and, especially in the bedrooms, inelegantly, by all those lintels and panels. I’d take out as many thin and over-fussy things as possible, such as the front porch posts and the uprights in front of the bay window, replace all the black tubular steel in the building including that on the furniture with charcoal stained timber with fewer lines, and simplify the framework and the paintwork. Not to remove the effect completely- it is very ambitious and audacious, and it’s fun in a maddening sort of way to contemplate trying to design all the combinations, but confusing the eye so much that meetings of incompatibilities are not so evident doesn’t mean they aren’t there. The whole thing is so busy it clutters the mind, as if Mondrian went tonal on LSD. It’s such a relief to go outside on the nice soothing decking with the dog. I’m grateful for the french doors from the bedroom. And how many spotlights does one house need? They are so hard on the eyes and the fittings are absolutely ugly. Maybe if there had been more time the editing could have been more rigorous.
Infomative on 23 Nov 2009 at 12:48 pm #
Reply to Curmudgeon
The RainShine house has its own blog, with diagrams of the passive solar techniques used in house. The large glazing and other aesthetic features were considered and designed to be most efficient. Regarding the steel, there are thermal breaks and thermal insulating tape at all joints connecting interior and exterior to prevent thermal transfer through the metal. All of the windows also have a thermal break with insulated glass.
rainshinehouseatlanta.blogspot.com