Student Housing, Bergen, Norway

PAROC ZERO™ Climate-smart slabs to the new Fantoft TRE

Fantoft is a borough in Bergen, Norway's second largest city. It is the home of the University of Bergen, NHH Norwegian School of Economics and Bergen University College, with courses for, among others, engineers, teachers and nurses.

The market for student housing in Bergen is highly competitive and the autumn semester is the most difficult. With Fantoft TRE, SiB can now offer a further 324 beds distributed among 289 rooms, as well as a nursery school for 60-80 children. The nursery is intended mainly for students' children but is also open to others.

ZERO perfect for tall timber buildings

SIB has chosen to use PAROC ZERO™ Climate-smart slabs for the new construction in Bergen. The product enables energy retrofitting equivalent to energy class A, but can also be used, as it is in Bergen, in the context of new developments as an external insulation on top of wooden surfaces.

Lars-Erik Olsson, product manager for Paroc Building Insulations, tells us that there are many good reasons to use PAROC ZERO™ Climate-smart slabs in tall timber buildings, and then primarily solid wood buildings or CLT frameworks.

"The system is easy to install, self-supporting, cost effective, naturally sustainable and environmentally friendly. In addition, it protects against the cold as well as moisture and fire."

The ZERO Climate-smart slabs solution builds on a new fastening method, with horizontal façade screws which bear the wind loads and angled façade screws which bear the vertical load from the façade. The horizontal screws also attach the insulation to the underlying frame. If the number of angled façade screws is increased, the load-bearing capacity also increases. This combination ensures a highly robust construction and minimal thermal bridges.”

Architectural firm positive

Bjørn Ivar Heggelund, B+B Architects, thought it was great fun to design a building in solid wood.

"It was a challenge to use the least possible massive timber in the design in spite of a monotone utilisation of the space and the very regular room distribution."

The architectural firm thinks that the Paroc ZERO Climate-smart slab is a smart product.

"What we liked with the insulation solution was that the slabs could be mounted directly on the timber without any furring strips or other such aids. That gave us a better u-factor, less work. But it was challenging to convince the independent building physics checks that it was OK not to have separate wind barriers, there was a fair bit of back and forth before the documentation was approved."

Energy-efficient and cost-effective

PAROC ZERO™ Climate-smart slabs are a very cost effective solution that provide a homogeneous insulating layer with minimal thermal bridges. Lars-Erik Olsson, Paroc, explains that he made some calculations from a master builder perspective, in which he compared a conventional insulating method (with surface-mounted wooden studs, insulation and wind protection) with the ZERO system.

"It is primarily the installation time that differs. Installing ZERO™ Climate-smart slabs can be done in almost half the time. The lower lambda value also provides a more energy-efficient solution, so an alternative is that the wall thickness can be reduced if compared with the conventional method."

Easy — and help is available

Paroc has developed a sizing tool available on its website. The tool can be used to calculate the number and length of façade screws needed and the design values of wind load and vertical load.