Grillagh Water House, Shipping Container

Overview:
Grillagh Water house is a unique project: an amazingly beautiful design icon nestling in the rural Irish countryside and created out of reclaimed shipping containers. A project so unusual and dramatic that it was featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs. The aim of architect Patrick Bradley was to create a practical and functional home for himself that is also visually dramatic – a sculpture in the landscape – while working to an extremely tight budget.

Project Type/Application:
Conscious of the rural setting, it was no surprise that part of Patrick’s ambition for the building was that it should achieve the highest levels of energy efficiency. As the external walls started life as steel shipping containers, providing effective insulation was the main challenge. The architect needed to find an insulation material that could be applied directly to the entire surface area of the steel structure. An immediate concern was to eliminate the possibility of condensation forming between the insulation and the wall – particularly challenging because of the corrugated shape of the steel structure.

Outcome/Results/Success Factor:
WALLTITE® was applied to the entire interior surface of the walls. WALLTITE® is a spray applied foam insulation system that provides a seamless airtight solution. Because it is sprayed in liquid form, which expands into foam on contact, it can be applied to any irregularly shaped surface – in this case following the contours of the corrugated steel. WALLTITE® was the only practical way to provide insulation to the corrugated metal walls without causing a condensation issue. In this instance WALLTITE® was sprayed to a depth of 125mm to give a U-value of 0.2W/m2K.
WALLTITE® is only supplied via approved Foam Master contractors who have received the technical training and back-up from BASF to provide the highest standards of installation.

Grillagh Water House in Northern Ireland has won two RIBA awards.