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Kingspan Kooltherm K15 Rainscreen Board has been specified as part of a new £42 million purpose built student accommodation project in Portsmouth, due to its outstanding thermal performance and ability to meet the stringent fire performance requirements for the project.
The Unite Students development has been master planned by CGMS. Once completed, the building will provide high quality and safe accommodation for 836 students. Cooley Architects’ design uses coloured Alpolic ACM cladding to form an eye-catching cube at the top of the 240 ft building. Kingspan Kooltherm K15 Rainscreen Board was installed as part of the rainscreen façade system as Marvin Village, Managing Director of Metclad Contracts Ltd, explained:
“We chose to take the Desktop Study route to compliance as this would allow us to use a premium performing insulation, a fundamental component in achieving the energy efficient design requirements, whilst also demonstrating compliance with fire safety regulations. It was therefore clear that we were seeking, not only a superior rigid phenolic insulant, but one that was backed up by a professional technical support service with a high level of expertise. Kingspan Insulation was the only rigid insulation manufacturer that offered this, helping simplify matters whilst guiding us through the routes to compliance from start to finish.”
Under the Desktop Study route to compliance, a fully qualified fire specialist was asked to draw up a report, specific to this project, on the façade system. The specialist was supplied with specifically referenced test data for the rainscreen components and planning documents including cross-sections, elevations and fire-stop details. Based on this information, they gave their approval that the entire rainscreen solution would meet the performance requirements of BR 135.
Kingspan Kooltherm K15 Rainscreen Board has successfully been tested in differing thicknesses with a range of cladding materials to BS 8414-1: 2002 and BS 8414-2: 2005, in accordance with the performance criteria set out in BR 135. The product is Class 0 as defined by the Building Regulations and delivers excellent thermal performance with thermal conductivities as low as 0.020 W/m.K.
In addition, a further 75 mm thickness of Kingspan Kooltherm K3 Floorboard was fitted on the ground floor. Both products feature a fibre-free insulation core and have been assigned a highest possible BRE Green Guide summary rating of A+. To complete the building envelope, a layer of high performance Kingspan Thermaroof TR27 LPC/FM was also installed on the roof of the building.
