BUILDINGS, MAINTENANCE & REFURBISHMENT What comes next?


With details refined and stored in common Building Information Modelling (BIM) libraries, councils can now clip and paste Passivhaus components into new briefs, confident that suppliers stock Passivhaus accredited (phA) rated windows and air-tightness tapes as standard items. Indeed, Scottish building-standards consultations are actively exploring a ‘deemed to satisfy’ route for certified Passivhaus projects, recognising that the burden of compliance is lighter when performance is independently verified. If Scotland can normalise this quality standard for its learning estate, it can normalise it anywhere – from homes and hospitals to custodial facilities.


Closing thought


Passivhaus Classic dual secondary school building in Dunfermline for Fife Council and has recently received official accreditation.1 The school has recorded an airtightness of 0.45 air changes per hour, meaning less than half of the air inside the building is replaced by outside air due to leakage each hour, improving heat retention and energy efficiency. This is one of the largest Passivhaus projects globally and has been well received by the communities it serves.


BAM UK & Ireland is also currently delivering c.£500m worth of Passivhaus education and leisure facilities across Scotland, including a secondary school in Rosyth, a leisure centre in Blairgowrie, a community hub in Kirkcaldy, and an upcoming leisure facility in Larkhall, making it the largest pipeline of its kind in Europe.


Comfort you can measure


Anyone who has endured a stuffy double lesson in school will grasp the significance of air quality, but numbers tell the story more sharply. Monitoring data from the Passivhaus Trust show that in Passivhaus schools, carbon-dioxide levels rarely climb above one thousand parts per million, whereas traditional classrooms routinely peak at three and a half thousand.


Cognitive-performance research indicates that reading comprehension and problem- solving ability begin to deteriorate once levels pass 1,500. In other words, energy efficiency is not simply an environmental virtue; it directly safeguards the attentiveness and wellbeing of pupils and teachers.


At Dunfermline, the teachers have praised the spatial layout for enabling better pupil engagement, encouraging calm behaviour and reducing disruption – particularly in the more open learning spaces that enable group collaboration alongside more quiet, independent study. Pupils themselves describe the building as “inspiring” and “comfortable,” noting that they feel respected and supported in a space that is clearly designed for them.


Why now?


Scotland’s decision to back Passivhaus as a recognised building method was rooted in hard-headed pragmatism rather than


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architectural fashion. Thanks to the Learning Estate Strategy, Net Zero Carbon Building Standards, and local councils’ zero carbon commitments, several Passivhaus school developments are underway. This initiative is driven by the Scottish Futures Trust’s (SFT) Learning Estates Investment Programme funding criteria, where a slice of capital funding is withheld if a finished school drifts above an operational energy cap of 67 kWh per square metre per year. Conventional buildings often miss their modelled targets by 50 percent once pupils move in, operating at around 85 kWh per square metre per year. Passivhaus projects, thanks to their rigorous modelling and independent certification, mitigate that risk. At the same time the Public Sector Heat & Buildings Strategy obliges every local authority to deliver a net zero estate by 2045. Faced with growing environmental concerns and two winters of energy price turbulence, councils sought a specification that offered predictability of performance and cost. Passivhaus provided an off the shelf answer that could meet all challenges at once.


Passivhaus is not just about changing building standards, it’s about changing a mindset to get quality embedded into how we deliver buildings within the construction industry. This is something that BAM UK & Ireland is proudly at the forefront of across the UK. The operations team must understand the detailed design at an almost forensic level of detail to comply with the numerous site inspections and evidence gathering during the construction phase. This methodology allows companies like BAM UK & Ireland to showcase its skills and achieve a new quality standard. Passivhaus helps clients address the climate emergency and cost of living crisis by delivering sustainable building solutions. All the while improving the lives of the occupants and wider community.


A generation of pupils will soon graduate without ever shivering through a maths lesson or dozing in a stuffy history exam. They will assume – correctly – that buildings should work for people and planet alike. That expectation may prove Passivhaus’s greatest legacy: not only the kilowatts saved, but the minds it sharpens and the ambitions it raises.


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