The new Blairgowrie Leisure Centre in Blairgowrie, Scotland, is a £36 million facility delivering community sport and leisure amenities for residents across Eastern Perthshire and for pupils at Blairgowrie High School.
Designed by Holmes Miller Architects and built by BAM Construction on behalf of Perth & Kinross Council through hub East Central Scotland, the project has been hailed as Scotland’s first Passivhaus leisure centre.
Kalzip played a pivotal role in realising the building’s aesthetic, environmental, and technical ambitions by supplying and supporting the installation of its advanced Kalzip 65/400 standing seam system, applied across both the roof and walls of the new complex. The Kalzip solution was specified with an HPC-R finish in Anthracite, chosen for its sophisticated, low-gloss appearance and subtle surface texture, which harmonises with the centre’s modern civic architecture. This refined finish gives the building a calm, contemporary aesthetic while also contributing to long-term surface durability and reduced reflectivity, qualities particularly valued in large, light-catching roof planes such as those found on the Blairgowrie facility.
Beyond appearance, the project’s technical brief demanded exceptional thermal performance and airtightness to meet stringent Passivhaus criteria. Achieving these targets required not only careful detailing but also the integration of an envelope system capable of delivering a U-value of 0.10W/ m²K. Kalzip’s system design made this possible through the use of a compressed mineral wool insulation zone within the roof build-up, combined with the inherent airtightness of the standing seam assembly. This robust thermal fabric forms part of the centre’s wider Passivhaus strategy, reducing energy consumption, stabilising internal comfort levels, and significantly cutting operational carbon over the building’s lifespan.
The primary structural frame of the building is formed from Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), reflecting a further commitment to low-embodied-carbon materials and natural construction methods. Kalzip’s system was carefully engineered to interface seamlessly with this CLT structure.
A continuous airtight membrane was installed between the timber frame and the Kalzip assembly, ensuring the building’s envelope met the extremely tight air-leakage standards demanded under Passivhaus certification. The combination of CLT structure, advanced insulation, and the precision-engineered metal envelope created a building fabric of outstanding integrity, capable of delivering airtightness, durability, and comfort to a standard rarely achieved in public leisure architecture. www.kalzip.com/en