Pilkington Spacia brings modern energy performance to Winston Churchill’s historic home

Pilkington Spacia has been specified for the renovation of Templeton, the former home of Sir Winston Churchill in Roehampton, South West London. The Grade II listed building is being transformed from a student residence for the University of Roehampton into a unique family home for Richstone Properties.

One of the most common issues associated with historic properties is poor energy performance, often caused by poor thermal glazing. Strict regulations for replacement glazing stipulate that the windows that need replacing must be replaced like-for-like with those originally featured in the property – at least in terms of their physical appearance.

Templeton’s owner, David and Laura Rich-Jones, asked contractor Richstone Properties to find a glazing solution that would meet this requirement whilst delivering a modern day standard of insulation.

In order to achieve this, Richstone Properties specified Pilkington Spacia, a bespoke carpentry and vacuum glazing product which delivers the thermal performance of double glazing but with a total thickness of just 6.5mm.

Double glazing for listed buildings

Whilst most common double glazed units contain either air or another gas in the cavity between the two panes, Pilkington Spacia features a vacuum, minimising conduction of heat through the unit.

The unit utilises transparent microspacers – small pillars measuring just 0.5mm in diameter, placed 20mm apart – to maintain the spacing between the sheets of glass.

The microspacers also limit the double reflections often associated with double glazing, another stipulation also made by the conservation officer.

Low profile, high performance

Richstone appointed Gowercroft Joinery, a Derbyshire-based carpenter specialising in windows and doors for heritage buildings, to carry out the re-glazing project, which involved a total of 157 windows and 37 external doors.

The total manufacturing time for the project is estimated to be around 12,000-15,000 working hours. The age of the building, as well as the size of the windows and doors, means that no two frames are exactly the same size and each one has had to be measured and manufactured to an individual specification.

Andrew Madge, managing director of Gowercroft Joinery, cited the major benefits of Pilkington Spacia being the larger pane sizes it offers:

“With thin standard double glazing units, the cavity is only 4-6mm thick and in large panes there is a risk that the two panes will bow inwards and touch, vastly affecting the efficiency of the unit.

Even though the styling of heritage windows normally prevents large uninterrupted panes, the bigger unit sizes allows us to apply glazing bars to the surface to create the traditional effect in a very convincing way, rather than constructing each panel individually. This significantly improves energy performance while also reducing manufacturing costs.

The technology allows us to deliver the best of both worlds – windows and doors that look to all but the expert eye like traditional single-glazing but which really deliver the levels of heat and noise insulation normally only available from much thicker double glazing.”

Contact:

Pilkington United Kingdom Limited,
Greengate Works,
Sherdley Road,
St. Helens,
Merseyside,
United Kingdom,
WA9 5 DZ

Phone: 01744 692000
Fax: 01744 692569

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