Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards: Retrofit finalist: Niddrie Road

Retrofit finalist in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards. Niddrie Road is a deep retrofit of a Glasgow social housing pre-1919 sandstone tenement. The project was modelled in PHPP and designed, but not certified, to the EnerPHit standard with high levels of insulation & airtightness combined with new heating & ventilation systems. Building performance monitoring shows drastically reduced energy bills with up to 90% savings, while optimising occupant health and comfort.

Niddrie Road

The Niddrie Road retrofit project aims to assess the scalability and replicability of the lessons learned for Glasgow’s wider pre-1919 tenement stock. An extensive research and information dissemination project has followed the retrofit, with a dedicated research team at Strathclyde University closely monitoring the building performance and sharing the learning. Occupant feedback on the scheme has been very positive, expressing overall satisfaction with all the aspects of their home, particularly the low energy bills. Addressing fuel poverty and affordability, monthly energy bills are reported to be below £66.00 even with the particularly high energy prices during the monitoring period.

The project team has developed unique technical solutions to the whole house retrofit. Fitting external insulation to the stone facade was felt to not be appropriate, so an internal wall insulation solution was designed. Internal wall insulation can be challenging because it can cause increased risks associated with moisture. Great care was taken to assess moisture risk by undertaking WUFI hygrothermal calculations. Natural hygroscopic insulation materials were used where possible and appropriate.