MacKenzie Place – Sunningdale Park
Thermataper provides leading performance for country estate.
Case Study5 min read
University of Gloucestershire is expanding its offering and supporting the regeneration of the city centre by converting a former Debenhams store into its new City Campus. This sensitive re-use of the iconic 1930s building will not only safeguard the cultural heritage of the city, but also avoid the significant embodied carbon emissions which would have resulted from demolishing and rebuilding the structure.
In addition to carrying out extensive works to rearrange internal layouts within the building, the project team also needed to minimise its energy demand, both to allow for cost effective operation and to support the University’s goal of reaching “net zero” carbon by 2030. They are achieving this by following an energy hierarchy approach, focusing first on upgrading the passive performance of the building, including installing or upgrading insulation.
LOCATIONGloucester, England
ProductsThermataper TT47
The redevelopment of the former store is being overseen by Morgan Sindall Construction. Once complete, City Campus will house: teaching and learning facilities; an arts, health, and wellbeing centre; city library; and a public café.
One of the first priorities on the project was refurbishing the expansive flat roof to ensure the building was fully weathertight. To extend the lifespan of the roof construction, whilst also achieving an area weighted average U-value of 0.15 W/m2K, Thermataper TT47 was installed.
In addition to standard, flat packer boards, Thermataper systems also feature tapered (wedge shaped) and hip and valley boards. This allows them to be laid out to provide both insulation and drainage in a single solution. In addition to supporting a fast installation on the project, with no time lost waiting for wet trades to dry, they are also much lighter than traditional alternatives such as screed to fall. This made them well suited for the refurbishment, as there was no need for additional structural reinforcement of the roof deck.
Faced with a coated glass tissue, the Thermataper TT47 boards are fully compatible with most bitumen based and mastic asphalt waterproofing systems along with single-ply non-bituminous membranes that are fully bonded with solvent-based adhesive systems. Where needed, the boards are also available with FM Approval to FM 4470, subject to the conditions of approval.
As with all Thermataper installations, the system was designed specifically for the project roof by our tapered roofing service team. Using the roof plans and the target U-value supplied by the project team, they developed a bespoke layout for the roof, allowing the drainage and thermal performance requirements to be met with the slimmest solution. The approved system layout was supplied with the insulation boards, allowing the installers to quickly complete the installation and make the roof weathertight.
Page published: 15/09/25
Discover More
