RaeRae House - Schüco

RaeRae House is a five-bedroom family residence which skilfully merges two pre-existing terraces. As a sensitively designed extension emphasising the original buildings’ heritage features while offering a range of modern accoutrements, RaeRae House is a design triumph.

The building has received significant acclaim, including being judged the Winner of the Residential Architecture Award (2020); RaeRae House also received a Commendation in the National Architecture Awards (2020).

On the ground level, Schüco ASS 39 PD.NI sliding doors link interior and exterior spaces. The ASS 39 PD.NI offers a number of unique design features which are ideally suited to RaeRae house. Designed to have the frame fully embedded, ASS 39 PB.NI can achieve excellent thermal performance with all aluminium frames being shielded within the building envelope. The sliding door top and bottom rails nest within the frame to conceal them from view and further enhance the thermal performance of the system, providing a true panoramic aesthetic and maximising available daylight and views.

The series of carefully oriented and chosen windows complement the building’s environmental strengths, with passive solar awnings shading the windows to protect the main building from heat load.

RaeRae House has been situated to maximise its energy profile. The house was built along the property’s southern boundary, with the northern aspect allowing residents to take full advantage of naturally available light and warmth. To maximise passive solar gain, the home has been reoriented along the property’s southern boundary.

As well as effectively shielding RaeRae House from heat during summer, the window suites have a difficult task during winter – maximise available daylight while optimising passive solar gain. To achieve this, all Schüco products in this project are double glazed with fixed external awnings for deliberate shading.

Actively managed shade and passive ventilation considerably reduces the demands placed on mechanical heating and cooling. Working in tandem, the windows, framing elements and architectural placement keep energy use to a minimum.