Windows from NorDan, the leading provider of high performance, environmentally-friendly timber windows and doors, have been selected for a multi-award-winning office building in Scotland for the Forestry Commission.

The organisation’s new office in Smithton, Inverness, was designed and constructed to the highest possible environmental standards and has earned an ‘excellent’ rating under BREEAM assessment methods. The £1.1 million project had two principal design criteria - use of timber and sustainability - and NorDan windows and doors were a natural choice on both scores.

The building is a substantial project which provides around 650 square metres of office space over two storeys with over £40,000 of glazing. Mark Williams of architects HRI in Inverness explains: “The client brief really allowed us to be free thinkers, to use our imaginations. Having said that, some aspects of the specification were an easy decision. We’ve used NorDan products for 20 years and find the company good to deal with, with high quality products - very few problems or callbacks, and no hassle. It really helps to know we can have confidence in the products we specify.”

NorDan supplied fixed light windows as well as its fully reversible windows, an advanced design which allows the window sash to be turned through 180 degrees, bringing the external glass to the inside for easy cleaning, eliminating the requirement for a cherry picker for this routine maintenance task. The windows can also be locked open at approximately 100mm with a safety restrictor, which is the everyday ventilation position. In addition, NorDan’s fully glazed, outward opening double doors were specified for the fire escapes.

The double glazed units are Argon-filled with low emissivity glass, which brings the whole window U-value down to 1.4 W/m²K, a substantial improvement on current Building Regulations standards of 1.8 W/m²K. Argon filled cavities are now standard across all NorDan’s ranges of windows and doors.

All NorDan products are available with optional durable aluminium cladding to reduce maintenance if required, but HRI opted instead for a green external finished stain with clear lacquer internally, to showcase the natural beauty of the timber frames, as specified in the client brief. A wide range of other options is available for NorDan’s windows, from special noise reduction glass to smart integral Venetian blinds.

Some 18 months after it was delivered, the Forestry Commission building has won several awards and been shortlisted for numerous others, including winning the RICS Sustainability Award for Scotland and a shortlisting in the Grand Final Worldwide, in addition to commendations in the Inverness Architectural Association’s Awards for most sustainable building, and for innovative and exemplar use of timber.