JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #101 - November/December 2015 - 31

environment

Bespoke composite house -
the devil is in the detail

By
SimOn heading
technical SaleS cOnSultant
lavender ce Pty ltd

Stage 1: 'The Rudi Project'
Rudi had engaged a number of architects
to 'tweak' his design and to offer suggestions to the ideas already drawn up,
but this proved too much for most when
given the challenge of translating this to
building methods, as they barely knew
anything about composites, and certainly
none had ever worked with the materials
before. So Rudi then decided to manage
the project, that was jokingly nicknamed
'The Rudi Project' by his friends. As an
engineer, Rudi approached it like any
other project, with drawings and meas-

urements... lots and lots of drawings and
measurements. He had to design and
quantify everything down to the smallest
detail, which he did, then checked and
rechecked. The result is a house which he
cannot only be proud of, but will challenge the way we think about building
and the materials with which we build.
As he pointed out, this house is a very
personal and self-indulgent affair, and
not built for anyone to admire other than
himself and his 'extremely' understanding wife, Michelle. This is ground zero
for an outpouring of Rudi's knowledge,
materialising from a space within his
head for all to see, and now judge. What
this house has done for most that have
seen it, is ask the question, why aren't
we making these sort of houses mainstream already? Off-site manufacturing
has obvious benefits and is nothing new;
however, this house was deliberately
designed so that regular trades could fit
out the structure once the skeleton was
in place.

but it is how Rudi wanted to do it. Once
the steel is powder coated, there is no
room for error as you cannot move a bolt
hole or a welded tab, at least not without
creating a problem. The steel beams were
carefully transported to site wrapped in
shrink-wrap and erected ready for the
panels to arrive (Figures 1 and 2).

Stage 3: A finished
structural panel
The advantage of building with composites is self-evident the moment you see
the first panel produced. You now have
a finished structural panel, with a pre-

Stage 2: A powder-coated
skeleton frame
While the land was cleared and holes dug
and foundations laid, the skeleton frame
was being welded and powder coated.
Yes, powder coated. This created a number of challenges, which, again, is not
necessarily how everyone would do it,

Fig. 1: Powder coated steel beams

No101 November - December 2015 / jec

Feature Building & Construction

f you are going to build a composite
house, you had better make something
that will make a statement and still
look impressive in years to come; this
house does both. Agreed, taste is subjective and this style is not for everyone,
but one thing this house does is get you
thinking. The concepts for this house
gestated in the mind of Rudi Steinbusch,
the managing director and founder of
Lavender Composites, a well-established
materials supplier in Brisbane, Australia,
and a respected aeronautical engineer
who has worked on multiple high-profile
projects, most of which are surrounded
in confidential paperwork.

This article covers the project's genesis followed by the construction of a house made of composites. This project is the result of one
man's determination, Rudi Steinbusch, who never gave up and finally
moved into his house. This project is a precursor of a new generation
of environmentally-oriented buildings.

composites magazine 31

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #101 - November/December 2015