Super-sized Scottish campus targets Passivhaus

The new Dunfermline Learning Campus will incorporate the relocation of a college and two schools (St Columba’s RC High School and Woodmill High School). The high school element of the Dunfermline Learning Campus will be delivering a whopping 23,000 m² of Passivhaus efficiency and comfort. To put it in context, it dwarfs the Northern Ireland Erne Campus, which has a treated floor area of 7167m^2. The project is a Pathfinder project for Scotland's  Net Zero Public Sector Building Standard. 

• Good form factor was an important early consideration. The building is large and the project team was keen to keep the form as compact as possible.
• The building combines two construction types for different elements of the building. The choice of  precast concrete frame and glulam frame aimed to help with the achievement of airtightness targets and improve the adoption of airtightness on site. However, the use of hybrid building envelope frames introduced challenges.
• Primary energy demand on this typology of building can be challenging. It was important for the design team to understand the profiles of use for the high demand spaces, such as home economics and design & technology, in order to input accurate energy figures from accurately developed usage profiles.

• As well as the operational carbon targets, embodied carbon targets were aiming for a budget of under 650kg/CO₂e/m^2, as per RIBA 2025 Target and the Net Zero Carbon Public Sector Building Standard. 
• Internal comfort and natural light levels are an important consideration and internal courtyards allow natural light to penetrate deep into the building. 

• Construction: Hybrid precast concrete frame and glulam frame
• Cost: £112 million 
• Number of pupils: 2514
• Gross internal loor area (GIFA): 26,666 m²
• Treated floor area (TFA): 23,186 m² 
• Form factor: 1.7
• Build start date: 2022
• Anticipated completion date: June 2024
• Certification: Aiming for Passivhaus Classic

East End Community Campus brings together Braeview Academy and Craigie High School in Dundee. The campus is also designed as a community facility, with sports facilities, auditorium, community rooms, teaching spaces and informal meeting spaces available for use by the general public. 

Contributing to Dundee City Council’s carbon reduction targets, the campus is designed to have low energy consumption both during the construction phase and throughout the life of the building. 

The project is being developed for Dundee City Council by Holmes Miller Architects, Atelier Ten, Sussed Sustainability. Goodson Associates and Robertson Tayside.

Ardrossan Community Campus is an educational and community project for North Ayrshire Council replacing the Winton Primary and Ardrossan Academy schools.

Partially funded through the Scottish Futures Trust, the project will be part of a new community and educational campus on a former brownfield site within Ardrossan’s North Shore and Harbour area and will target the Passivhaus standard, in line with SFT targets of in-use energy consumption of 67/kWh/m²/annum.

The project is being undertaken for North Ayrshire Council, with jmarchitects and Wallace Whittle Contractors and PHT member Zero Energy +Passivhaus as Passivhaus Certifier.