Images of climate innovation

Niddrie Road, Glasgow - Deep tenement retrofit

There are more than 75,000 iconic pre-1919 sandstone tenement homes in Glasgow, which represent a major challenge to achieving net zero. This demonstration project, including its evaluation, is a collaboration between industry, the voluntary sector and academia. The project will provide shared learning about how deep retrofit of these older buildings can be achieved. The images show selected elements of the internal fabric work now underway on-site.

Three photographs on the right of a tenement building in a state of disrepair and a diagram on the left of a tenement building being infiltrated by cold air

Glasgow has more than 75,000 iconic pre-1919 sandstone tenements. Their age, built form, condition, and multiple forms of ownership constitute major challenges for the achievement of net-zero emission targets across the housing stock, a critical element of wider carbon reduction strategies.

This project is a demonstration of a deep retrofit of one such typical tenement, works which are also the subject of a careful ongoing research evaluation. The tenement retrofit concerns eight single bed flats in one traditional tenement close on Niddrie Road in Strathbungo East, in the inner south side of the city. It is a few yards away from the entrance to Queen's Park railway station, and close to Pollokshaws Road.

The project (designed to meet EnerPhit standards of retrofit) is principally funded by Glasgow City Council and by Southside Housing Association (who own the property), with additional grant funding from the Scottish Government. The retrofit is being undertaken by a team consisting of Southside Housing Association, John Gilbert Architects, and CCG Construction Ltd.

To learn wider lessons for tenement retrofit, the project is being thoroughly evaluated by a research partnership resourced by the Scottish Funding Council. The research partnership is led by the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) at the University of Glasgow, working with Prof Tim Sharpe at the University of Strathclyde Department of Architecture, Southside Housing Association, Chris Morgan at John Gilbert Architects, the City Council and CCG Construction Ltd. The retrofit works are scheduled to be completed in November 2021 with the evaluation completed by the early Spring of 2022.

For further information on the construction project, contact Patrick McGrath, Director, Southside Housing Association, by email at PMcGrath@southside-ha.co.uk. For further information on the evaluation project, contact. Kenneth Gibb, Director UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence, by email, at ken.gibb@glasgow.ac.uk

Entrant: Ken Gibb , University of Glasgow

Copyright: John Gilbert Architects

Funding: Glasgow City Council; Southside Housing Association; Scottish Government; Scottish Funding Council.

Collaborators: UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE); Prof Tim Sharpe (University of Strathclyde); Southside Housing Association, Chris Morgan (John Gilbert Architects), Glasgow City Council and CCG Construction Ltd.