Commercial MVHR

Civic House is a thriving community space in Glasgow that hosts a dynamic range of activities – coworking, festivals, workshops, talks and food events (to name a few!).

Funded by the Climate Challenge Fund and Scottish Power Energy Network’s (SPEN) Green Economic Fund, Collective Architecture was commissioned by Agile City to undertake the refurbishment and thermal upgrade of this early 20th century industrial warehouse located in the north of Glasgow. Civic House started life as Civic Press in the 1920s and was a derilict building with immense heating costs.

The core principle of the project was to create a leading example that demonstrated carbon reduction innovation as Scotland’s first retrofit ‘PassivWareHaus’. As part of the ‘whole systems approach’, the refurbishment of Civic House included:

• – External Wall Insulation
• – High performance doors and windows
• – Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery System (MVHR)
• – Air Source Heat Pump
• – Composite Insulated roof panel system
• – Photovoltaics Panels – roof array 50kWp

Now complete, the project aims to deliver a public learning programme that explores sustainability and inclusive city development to increase knowledge, develop new skills and drive local behavioural change. As a community-based workspace, the project aims to demonstrate that small actions can generate large-scale impact.

PAUL Heat Recovery has been working closely with Rupert Daly of Collective Architecture and Rob of Agyle City to explore the ventilation requirements of the building and come up with an innovative MVHR design, incorporating two Zehnder ComfoAir 600 MVHR systems, cascade ventilation and fan to optimise the air flow through the large two-storey community spaces and the adjacent offices and facilities.