AIR-CELL insulation helps Moe South Street school achieve higher thermal performance

AIR-CELL Insulbreak 65 from Kingspan Insulation was installed around the walls of the Moe South Street Primary School, helping the new prefabricated building achieve higher thermal performance. One of the earliest beneficiaries of the Victorian Government’s Permanent Modular School Program, Moe South Street Primary School features Kingspan’s thermo-reflective flexible insulation instead of traditional non-reflective sarking.

The Victorian Government’s Permanent Modular School Program aims to replace all asbestos structures in Victorian schools with architecturally designed, prefabricated modular buildings. The Government’s $200 million investment in the program is enabling schools to move forward with more permanent alternatives.

Modular builds are very popular in education projects because they avoid any disruption to students, staff, or the school term. Through advance planning and quicker construction times, complete buildings can be erected during school holidays while the students are off-site.

Product Sales Manager, Simon Whalen explains that the ability to complete the project within this timeframe is crucial because it’s not only about minimising disruption to the classes, but also about avoiding safety risks to the students during construction.

The Permanent Modular School Program is expected to benefit 100 schools over the next four years, 30 of which have already been completed or are underway and 70 more are to come up before 2021.

New research into improving modular buildings for use in schools is expected to pave the way for the future of prefabricated construction in public education in Australia. Research into structural design, thermal performance, and indoor environment quality was carried out before the program’s commencement and is improving outcomes already. 

Moe South Street Primary School was able to achieve a higher thermal performance with the use of Kingspan’s AIR-CELL Insulbreak 65. The use of AIR-CELL Insulbreak in this application helped increase the overall thermal performance of the building while the product’s flexibility also meant it could be installed offsite, working to the benefit of the modular build.

Rural regions are especially benefitting from the accessibility and ease of modular buildings; limited access to labour forces meant conventional builds were inaccessible to these areas.

According to Whalen, installing AIR-CELL offsite saved on labour costs and time at the point of construction, and contributed greatly to the success of the Moe South Street Primary School project.