Robert M. Cain Architect
By David Sokol,Via:greensource.construction.com
The owners of RainShine House were perfect candidates for a sustainably designed residence. The husband, a longtime commercial client of architect Robert Cain, AIA, LEED AP, suffers from a sunlight deprivation disorder and often travels to his native Florida to beat the winter blues. For his wife, off-gassing can trigger nausea and headaches. Her environmental sensitivity is philosophical, too, Cain, says: “She sees [RainShine House] partly as a way to help others visualize what you can do with green technology.” …
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
… The clients had purchased an infill site located near downtown Decatur, Georgia, thanks to its good southern exposure—clearly with the husband’s seasonal moods in mind…
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
…Yet the building lot didn’t allow for easy solutions…
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…Factoring in a manmade flood plain, stream buffer, and sewer easement …
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
…the one-third acre contained only a trapezoidal 3,778-square-foot area suitable for construction…
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
…Cain also had to consider a photovoltaic array that would mount to the roof without additional superstructure; the northeast corner of the property enjoys the best solar exposure…
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
…"[These parameters] went against solutions I had arrived at in the past," Cain says. "The houses I had done tend to be more linear, like southern shotguns, that are oriented along an east-west axis with broad eaves protecting the ends from morning and afternoon sun. Here there was no way to have that orientation." …
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
… The new solution: a 3,037-square-foot butterfly roof; with the entrance of RainShine facing west, the roof’s profile, as well as the ring of clerestory windows supporting it, is clearly visible from the street…
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
…"The roof gave form to the rest of the house," Cain says, noting that the floor plan easily fell into place thereafter…
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
…The internal configuration of spaces, he says, continues to evoke regional vernacular architecture, specifically a variation of the dogtrot…
…Although the butterfly roof raised the ire of some locals, RainShine’s scale, setback from the street, color scheme, and fenestration rhythm take their cues from the neighboring homes…
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
…The water is stored in five 500-gallon cisterns in the basement, and it is then deployed for toilet and irrigation uses…
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
…RainShine's various sustainability strategies…
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… from the care taken to expedite natural ventilation, to the installation of geothermal heating and cooling and a desuperheater that recovers the two-well system's discharged heat…
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
…add up to 108 points under LEED for Homes…
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…For Cain, Platinum certification helps advance a cause…
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… The majority of LEED-Platinum homes in the greater Atlanta area are confections of historicist flourishes, he says…
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
… "My argument is, Why force sustainable principles into traditional design when you can use a form that is much more adaptable to the solutions you want to achieve?" …
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
…And what a success it is, for the planet as much as for RainShine's occupants…
Photo © Paul Hultberg Photography
… Thanks to abundant yet controlled daylighting, he escaped to Florida fewer times this past winter; she felt comfortable during the cold weather, catching the aroma only of reclaimed heart pine.
