DEL.ICIO.USTour displays modern living
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saturday, May 16, 2009
On a wet weekday morning, the newly inhabited RainShine house in Decatur is doing what it does best — saving rainwater for other uses.
An inverted butterfly roof funnels the water into bowtie-shaped gutters and then through a series of pipes until it reaches five 550-gallon cisterns in the basement. There it sits waiting to be used in the flush of a toilet or the spray of a water hose.
BOB ANDRES / bandres@ajc.com
The house features large open areas. The windows open low to allow cooler air to enter and passively cool the house. This view looks out onto the rear deck and yard.
BOB ANDRES / bandres@ajc.com
Front view of the RainShine House. The RainShine house has sustainable features such as solar panels and water reservoirs to make it the first LEED platinum certified modern home in Atlanta.
Event preview
Modern Atlanta Home Tour
Sat. - Sun.; 10:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 per person for a two-day pass. Purchase tickets at Modern Atlanta.
Home design storiesWelcome to the latest in modern home design.
RainShine, designed by Atlanta architect Robert M. Cain, is among a dozen homes on the Modern Atlanta Home Tour, which begins today. The tour, designed to showcase the best of modern living in Atlanta, is the culmination of this year’s Design Is Human event. Other homes featured on the tour include the Ansley Glass House, The Mansion on Peachtree and Simblist-Serenbe Home in Palmetto.
“There have always been modern homes in Atlanta, but it has been a quiet thing,” said Elayne DeLeo, who co-founded the organization Modern Atlanta with Bernard McCoy in 2007. She estimates only 20 percent of Atlanta area architecture qualifies as modern, but it’s spreading. “All over you see a modern going up next to a McMansion or a traditional home,” DeLeo said.
When selecting homes for the tour, DeLeo chooses traditional homes with modern elements or modern homes that employ green development techniques, use sustainable materials and have thoughtful application of space and light. RainShine, the only modern residence in the Southeast to earn the highest level of certification (platinum) from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), is at the top of the list.
The front deck is made with reclaimed plastic bags. The heart pine door frames, floors and custom tables use wood from century-old local stables, and the landscape stones and bricks were salvaged from the crumbling house that once stood on the property.
Paints with low or no volatile organic compound (VOC) content create an interior palette of greens, blues and yellows, while green landscaping includes native shrubbery and seasonal plants.
Windows positioned at high and low levels generate enough air flow to render heating and air conditioning unnecessary for at least two months in spring and fall, while four underground wells serve a geothermal heat pump, which fuels the home’s heat, air conditioning and hot water.
And finally, there is the solar power-generating system that converts sunlight to energy, which even on that rainy weekday morning produces one-half kilowatt, helping put the shine in RainShine.
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