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October 2023
Passivhaus primary heralds a new era of climate controlled learning

Passivhaus primary heralds a new era of climate controlled learning

October 4 2023

The City of Edinburgh Council has extended its Passivhaus revolution with the completion of a two-storey extension to Sciennes Primary School in Marchmont.

The £3.2m build, said to be the first Passivhaus primary in Scotland to be built using cross laminated timber (CLT), has been designed around the need to minimise energy consumption by maintaining a comfortable ambient temperature through winter and summer.

Clara Garriga, project director at Holmes Miller and lead architect for the project, commented: “We are really pleased with how the cross-laminated timber looks and how it’s performing; it has given the interior spaces a real warmth that we wouldn’t have achieved otherwise, and the air tightness of the building is 0.28, which is excellent."

Augmenting the B-listed main building with four additional classrooms the extension offers open-plan learning with large windows and integrated seats. Rooflights are also employed to bring natural light into the constrained site.

Cllr Joan Griffiths, education convener at the City of Edinburgh Council, added: “The new classroom block at Sciennes is our first fully Passivhaus school building and we want it to set the standard and be a model for how we look to build low carbon schools.”

CLT is used for all walls, floors, roofs and partitions, chosen for its air tightness and thermal qualities. Triple glazing and extensive insulation contribute to the Passivhaus standard as well as the use of mechanical heat recovery systems and air source heat pumps.

Photography by Chris Humphreys