Beaufort House
A 1950’s office building has been transformed into a luxury apartment complex
Case Study4 min read
Kooltherm K110
Premium performance soffit insulation
© 2026 Kingspan Holdings (IRL) Limited, All Rights Reserved
Sitting at the shore of a scenic ornamental loch on Heriot Watt’s Ricarton Campus in Edinburgh, the GRID centre sets out an ambitious vision for the future. The building brings together computer sciences, engineering, mathematics and physical sciences under a single roof, aiming to support cross collaboration between each discipline and enable greater cohesion between academic research, business enterprise and entrepreneurial talent.
The GRID centre's design takes advantage of a significant slope at the site, building into the hillside to create access for a large basement providing delivery and plant spaces along with bike storage. As part of a future-proofed design, the building is heated and cooled entirely via an air source heat pump. As this heats water to a lower temperature than a conventional gas system it was essential to ensure the outer envelope was effectively insulated.
The premium performance soffit insulation achieves a thermal conductivity of 0.019 W/mK across all thicknesses. This allowed the project team to achieve the desired ceiling U-value with a slim thickness of insulation – maximising the floor to ceiling height within the space. The rigid, lightweight design of the boards also supported a simple installation process, ensuring the project was ready in time for the 2019 student intake.
Page updated 13/02/2026
The project team chose to insulate the ground floor slab to a U-value of 0.16 W/m²K. To raise the ceiling above the uninsulated basement space to the same level, Kooltherm K110 was installed.
