Building owner: Renfrewshire Council
Main Contractor: Morrison Construction
Product: Kingspan GreenGuard GG300

Introduction

The new Paisley Grammar School Community Campus (PGSCC) was commissioned by Renfrewshire Council to replace the historic Paisley Grammar School. The project provides a state-of-the-art facility with spacious amenities and technology to serve pupils for decades to come. To limit the energy demand and operational carbon from the new campus, it has been constructed to the Passivhaus Standard with a specification featuring Kingspan GreenGuard GG300.

A Heritage Project

Paisley Grammar School was originally opened in 1576; however, the existing building, which dates back to 1898, was identified as in need of modernisation, which would not be possible on the current site. As a result, Renfrewshire Council decided to construct a new, purpose-built facility at a new site. A key requirement in the brief was that the new campus should reference the original school’s historic character while delivering a modern and innovative new facility. The design features a central open-plan atrium, which spreads across three floors, replicating the layout of the original building.

The campus, which has been built by Morrison Construction, accommodates approximately 1,350 secondary pupils and extends facility use to the local community outside school hours.

The building is being part-funded by the Learning Estates Investment Programme (LEIP) by Scottish Futures Trust in partnership with Renfrewshire Council, requiring projects to demonstrate compliance under four metrics, including energy efficiency. To meet these requirements, and Scotland’s wider commitment to be net zero operational carbon by 2045, Renfrewshire Council required the campus to be constructed to Passivhaus Classic Certification – limiting heating demand to 15 kWh/m²/a. To meet this target, heat losses through the building fabric needed to be minimised, leading to the specification of Kingspan GreenGuard GG300.

A Robust Solution

Kingspan GreenGuard GG300 is a closed-cell rigid extruded XPS insulation with a compressive strength of 300 kPa when tested to BS EN 826 (the testing method for the determination of compression behaviour for thermal insulating products). This compressive strength allows it to be used in heavy-duty applications such as car park decks and industrial flooring and made it well suited to the demands of the ground floor application at the school, which will be exposed to high foot traffic and concentrated areas of movement.

The XPS boards are resistant to ground water penetration, allowing them to be installed above or beneath the damp proof membrane and deliver a thermal conductivity of 0.033 W/mK. To meet the project’s ambitious fabric performance targets, two 150 mm layers of Kingspan GreenGuard GG300 were laid as part of the ground floor construction. To further limit potential heat losses, the boards were laid lightly butted in a break-bonded pattern with the joints in the two layers offset.

Kingspan GreenGuard GG300 boards produced at Kingspan Insulation’s Selby, North Yorkshire, manufacturing facility are certified to BES 6001 (Framework Standard for the Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products) ‘Good’.