This Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning project from Glue Society combined human stories and climate realities with design that pushed home building toward a more climate-aware future.

Designing, testing, and prototyping a home capable of withstanding Australia’s most extreme and evolving conditions, One House to Save Many was a two-year process, culminating in a TVC, a documentary, and real-world designs and learnings shared with the public.

For the film, everything was captured in-camera using a meticulously detailed 1:4 scale model and bespoke weather-testing rigs, an approach that mirrored real-world scientific testing. The resulting campaign was a seamless blend of craft, science, engineering, and creativity, built as a blueprint for resilience.

Q&A with Director Johnathan Kneebone:

How did the original brief from Suncorp and Leo Burnett first come to you?

The brief we received was simple enough to be put into a sentence, but it disguised the extreme complexity of the challenge.

They asked: “Can you build a house that is resilient to bushfire, flood and cyclone?”

They wanted to essentially create a building filled with innovations and ways to build in protective measures that could then be adopted by the public to make their own homes safer and more insurable – helping to reduce premiums.

An imaginative and highly original take on advertising for an insurer.

And something they seemed prepared to invest in – not just financially but with their time.

And of course, they wanted to document the journey.

What was Glue’s role in this project?

We really became not just the director of the film or documentary, but the director of the entire project – including the design, construction, and testing.

Our job was really to assemble a team who could achieve this.

And what we discovered was that each individual participant had knowledge, but only when they came together to tackle this shared problem did it become possible to solve it.

They all had discrete knowledge, and in a way no one individually could have reached a result. But by working in harmony, there was a lot of confidence that this was entirely possible, with the right time, budget, and a following wind (though ideally not a cyclonic wind!).

What was the creative solution, and how did it come to life through collaboration and experimentation?

We engaged an architect (Room 11) with experience in bushfire design from Tasmania – the team who also worked on the design for Earth’s Black Box. Then we had bushfire testers from CSIRO. We added in experts in cyclone testing from Queensland and construction teams, as well as various experts from the client side.

Together it became possible to share knowledge and build into the new design solutions which would be robust and resilient.

There was an appetite to make a three-bedroom home that was both appealing and affordable, but that included design solutions achievable to the average family.

One of the simplest and smartest breakthroughs was realising that Crimsafe screens – which usually protect against burglaries – could be used to guard windows from flying cyclone debris (a major cause of injury and damage), while also deterring sparks and heat from bushfires.

So one simple adjustment to a home could protect it from multiple catastrophic events.

Why was the model built at 1:4 scale?

The original plan was to build a full-sized version of the home in Texas in the United States – but the project coincided with the start of COVID. In fact, the shoot in Queensland had to be entirely limited to local crew at the last minute because of various Sydney lockdowns.

We therefore had to shoot everything at reduced scale, in the large hall at Barangaroo.

The model was really created to replicate the design and methods in which the house would be protected. So we needed to re-create wind, rain, flood and fire using quarter-scale props and production design.

In order to allow the public to witness the effects of weather on this house, we set up a regular 1:1 scale window frame and projected the imagery from the model up to life size beyond. This visual trick meant that our audience, whose own houses had been impacted or damaged in the past, were able to see a new build in front of their own eyes and react accordingly.

Tell us about simulating the elements on set – what was that experience like?

We did the real testing at a CSIRO bushfire facility, with a full-size construction being attacked by severe bushfire stimulus.

Seeing the building stand up to the very worst bushfire was extraordinary. The design innovations genuinely worked. And would have allowed people inside the building to remain safe, at regular temperatures, even if the building was completely covered in flames.

The entire project was immense. Not just from its ambitions, but from the complexity of storytelling and managing the realities of something that had never been done before.

It is why I think the project resonated around the world. And why it picked up the Grand Prix for Innovation at Cannes.

But the biggest achievement was seeing changes to the Australian building codes, as well as the unlocking of funds for improved building resilience around the country.

We live in a country which is hostile. And we are now used to this cycle of damage and then repair.

For an insurer to realise that by investing in protection upfront, their own insurance payments would be reduced, was a very shrewd and smart move.