Carbon Dynamic, a modular timber construction specialists, has installed fermacell fibreboard during the construction of garden units for a four-star spa hotel in Inverness.

The square-edged gypsum fibreboard panels have been used to line 13 modular 26m2 garden lodges, including one accessible unit, and each comprising a king-size bed, en-suite and indoor and outdoor seating areas, as well as a plant room module at the luxury Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness.

Working with the hotel’s engineers and architects Keppie Design, each of the five-star lodges was manufactured and fully fitted out in Carbon Dynamic’s factory in less than three weeks. They were then delivered to site and installed in less than two days onto pre-prepared, low-impact foundations in the hotel’s rear garden.

With manufacture and site works able to take place concurrently the hotel was able to realise the letting potential much quicker than with a traditional on-site build and disruption was minimal.

The garden-facing elevation of each module is fully glazed while a new natural stone wall was constructed as an extension to an existing garden wall to create a bookend to the 400m2 development, concealing it from general view and allowing the new modular constructions to nestle into the landscape.

Untreated larch was chosen for the external cladding to create a softer, more rustic and sympathetic aesthetic to blend the building into its environment. The fermacell boards which clad the interior are fire resistant to Class A2-s1, d0 and perform to thermal conductivity 0.32W/mK.

Carbon Dynamic completed the detailed design, off-site construction and installation of the modules from its 4,000m2 off-site factory in Invergordon.

Managing director Matt Stevenson said: “In this project it (fermacell) was used as a fine, crisp, high-quality modern wall and ceiling finish and as a contributor to the fire resistance and acoustic insulation.”

Keppie Design divisional director Mike Lawson said: “The planners were very receptive to the sensitive integration of development into an established garden setting and fully supportive of the utilisation of Modern Methods of Construction.”