Rainbow House
Location | Ainslie, ACT Completed | June 2020
EER | 8 stars Area | House 172 m2; carport 27 m2
Builder | 360 Building Solutions Photos | Ben Wrigley, November 2020
Awards | 2021 MBA ACT Excellence Awards PEOPLE’S CHOICE: Winner
2021 MBA ACT Excellence Awards - Custom Built Home $500-$750k: Commendation
Television | Renovate or Rebuild on Channel 9 — Inspiration: Rainbow House
Print Media | HerCanberra Home Stories: Sue Webeck and Sam Tyler
Webinar | Renew Sustainable House Day September 2021 (4:40 to 29:15 min)
The clients had lived on the site in the original small, poorly oriented, largely uninsulated and very leaky home for many years, raising their twins in extreme thermal discomfort and energy-bill shock. They were confident their quality of life could be better.
With north to the rear of the block, the clients were keen to take full advantage of this to create a light-filled, energy-efficient and comfortable home that would meet their current and future needs. High energy efficiency was ensured by combining solar passive principles with a building physics focus on a well-insulated and sealed building envelope.
The result is a beautiful 8 star, energy-efficient home with a floor plan that is space-efficient, functional and flexible. The new floor plan connects the living spaces to the back garden, deck and pergola, facilitating the use of the outdoor spaces. The living areas are at the back of the house facing north, where the exposed burnished fully-insulated concrete slab soaks up the winter sun and releases the retained heat overnight minimising the need for mechanical heating.
The project also included conscious consideration and use of environmentally sustainable and recycled building materials:
External cladding products (recycled bricks, Colorbond) were chosen for their environmental credentials including longevity, durability, naturality and/or low embodied energy.
Low VOC paints and finishes were used throughout.
Materials from the original house were salvaged for reuse in the project: hardwood framing was re-milled onsite into battens and used for the carport door, fences and gates.
Concrete pavers and Colorbond planter boxes from the original home were reclaimed and reused for landscaping.
The average Canberra home experiences an air leakage rate of 15 - 20 ACH@50Pa, whereas this home achieved 3.44ACH @50Pa. The impressive level of airtightness was achieved using standard residential construction materials and methodologies, and without the use of internal air barrier membranes and services cavities, which keeps construction costs much lower and provides excellent thermal bang-for-buck.
This home demonstrates that houses do not have to be big and full of gadgetry to be stunning and well crafted. At under 200m2 including the double garage, it has a significantly smaller footprint, much lower embodied energy and requires significantly less operational energy than typical new Canberra homes.
The clients (young, old and canine) are delighted with the result!
“We had been living in our home and thinking about what next for our little 1964 brick house for 13 years. We had made little improvements to the house but knew that something more was required. We wanted our home to live with us through ours and our children’s life stages and phases. We wanted something that would meet the current and emerging needs of our climate crisis built for the Canberra environment. We wanted somewhere that was home.
When looking at options for our future home we considered selling and buying elsewhere and renovating but in the end a knock down rebuild was the best option. After visiting a few homes of friends and colleagues, the Light House aesthetic and philosophy rang true. We wanted the support of a architecture studio that had achieved from a thermal comfort, science and design perspective and one that could help us through the tendering and building process. Light House were able to help us on our home development journey with shared values, connection, community, and science.
Through our journey we have discovered that this is as much about the home you want to build and live in but also the people you want in your home. Light House took time to understand our desire for space without a large environmental impact and our family’s growing and diverse need. They delivered a design that reflected how we wanted to live and that fit within our suburban environment.
The support from Light House to connect us with builders who shared the values and vision was a key part of our journey. We chose 360 Building Solutions because it was a good fit for our family. Choosing a builder that was respectful, supportive and innovative was important, particularly considering how much interaction there is through the build, that they are connected to the home being built and that there is an ongoing relationship. Having a local building company with high standards and solid values and principles sets the tone for a happy home built on trust and respect.
The 360 Building Solutions standards of onsite operation were impeccable with the highest levels of respect for our home, land, neighbours and our family. The level of care taken in salvage through the demolition process and policies on site behaviour are just two examples. 360 were inventive with problem solving, communicative about the building process and their solutions and responsive to unforeseen issues which popped up.
The workmanship and quality of finish makes this house a home and is a testament to the partnership between architect and builder. Attention to detail has seen so many visitors to our home remark on the quality of this build and it makes us proud to have invested in our future through this process. There have been times where we hadn’t noticed a problem, but they noticed and the finish was perfected to their high standards.
What Light House and 360 Building has done is take our vision, our hopes and our dreams and turned it into a design which has been executed with professionalism and positive spirit making a worthwhile impact on our lives and the environment we live in. It is a home that is inviting, thoughtful and fit for purpose. It has enriched our lives aesthetically, physically, environmentally and socially and it will continue to do so for many years to come.”