Academy Award
Keim Mineral Paints have been used extensively on the award-winning Academy of St Francis of Assisi in the Kensington area of Liverpool. The 900-place Academy is one of the governments city academies and is the first new school to be jointly developed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool together with DfES.
The client’s vision for the Academy was to have a strong Christian ethos without being a conventional “faith” school. The design, by Architects – Capita Percy Thomas therefore seeks to engage with the wider community, and has been developed to repair the urban and landscape fabric of an area urgently requiring social and economic regeneration. The site, a former council environmental depot on the edge of a Victorian park, is in a sensitive setting with attractive Victorian housing close to the southern boundary. Consultations with English Heritage and the Liverpool City Council Planning Department emphasised the need for the building design to respond sympathetically to the urban context.
With the specialism of the Academy being The Environment, it was important for the building to facilitate environmental education and to model good environmental design practice. As confirmation of achieving this goal, the building subsequently achieved an ‘excellent’ rating in an independent pilot preliminary BREEAM assessment. A new courtyard has been formed bounded by single and two-storey elements of the Academy together with an elevated outdoor classroom and wildflower garden above an extensive basement housing top-lit sports and assembly hall spaces. A 4-storey teaching block with solar atrium incorporates classroom spaces orientated to enjoy good views across the park. The building is concrete framed, using a flat slab construction with floor slabs and basement walls left exposed for thermal mass benefits.
Keim Mineral Paints assisted in fulfilling the environmental aspects of the design because of their sustainability credentials which were a key requirement of all material specifications.
Keim Ecosil has been used to decorate interior new plasterboard and plaster ceilings, with Keim Concretal used on internal concrete walls and Keim Granital on new external in situ concrete areas. In addition, Keim MX coloured glaze has been used on the lower 1.5 metres of walls to provide extra protection in the main corridors and stairs where especially heavy traffic is experienced. In total around 15,000m2 have been decorated using Keim Mineral Paints.
Keim Mineral Paints are very different from conventional masonry paints. They comprise a potassium silicate binder with mineral fillers and inorganic earth oxide colour pigments. When applied to a mineral substrate, the binder soaks into it and forms a microcrystalline bond which maintains vapour permeability but prevents the ingress of driven rain. This structure is highly stable, resists acid and alkaline attack and is inherently non-combustible. Colour pigments are UV stable and do not fade. Keim paints can therefore provide long term protective and decorative finishes even in harsh climatic conditions and can be expected to perform satisfactorily for periods in excess of 25 years on unpainted surfaces and over 15 years over previously painted finishes. This ensures significant long term whole life cost savings by reducing repaint cycles.
In addition the microcrystalline bond eliminates the need for stripping off before repainting.
Environmentally Keim Mineral Paints are waterborne, solvent free, have no VOC content. They consume less energy in manufacture, produce less emissions, have lower carbon dioxide emissions, produce less wastewater and less waste than acrylic dispersion paints.
They are breathable, allowing water vapour to pass from the substrate and will therefore gradually reduce the moisture content of the building and thereby the energy required for heating.
Because they have a natural high light reflectivity, lighting levels can be reduced, resulting in further energy savings.
By specifying Keim Mineral Paints, Capita Percy Thomas have ensured that materials have been chosen with particular consideration for environmental aspects and the project has been specified to incorporate environmental products in all aspects of the building.