Civic House

The retrofit of Civic House, a former printworks, has created a hub of cultural and social enterprise that brings new life to a neglected corner of Glasgow. The repurposed building acts as a micro power station ‒ generating more energy than it consumes over the course of a year. Funded by the Climate Challenge Fund and Scottish Power Energy Network’s Green Economic Fund, Collective Architecture was commissioned by Agile City to undertake the refurbishment of the 1920s industrial warehouse located in north Glasgow. The core principle of the project was to create a leading example that demonstrated carbon reduction innovation as Scotland’s first retrofit ‘PassivWarehaus’. Collective Architecture created an incremental retrofit plan, ensuring it to be carried out in phases in line with available funding. Taking a fabric-first approach and designed to target EnerPHit standards, the retrofit works could reduce energy demand while making it more comfortable for users. The energy modelling– using the Passive House Planning Package – indicated that the building’s heating demand could be reduced by 86% while maintaining a temperature of 20oC throughout the year. Collective Architecture worked collaboratively with the client from the outstart to find cost effective ways of retrofitting the building to high levels of performance in conjunction with funding applications. The client was keen to make the building an exemplar and this extended to becoming involved with the application of the airtightness tape themselves, in order to save on costs. The client was very hands on and a key part of pushing the potential for the building to be retrofitted to target EnerPHit standards. The first phase of the external works involved replacing the dilapidated slate roof with thermally efficient composite metal roof panels on top of an airtight membrane laid on the existing roofing boards. The second phase saw the installation of 50kW PV roof array, an external insulation cladding system for the walls, new triple-glazed airtight windows and a mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system, along with an air source heat pump. With the phase two works now complete, Civic House is a home to a thriving community of social and creative enterprise. As an events space, it hosts talks, films, performances and exhibitions. And a Pakistani-inspired vegan canteen provides a social hub for the wider Speirs Lock creative community, other visitors from all over Glasgow and further afield. As a community-based workspace, the project aims to demonstrate that small actions can generate large-scale impact.