Burry Port Community Primary School

RSAW WELSH ARCHITECTURE AWARD 2016

RSAW SUSTAINABILITY AWARD 2016

RSAW PROJECT ARCHITECT OF THE YEAR 2016

The choice of opting for Passivhaus, lies with Carmarthenshire’s ongoing commitment towards long-term sustainability, with the standard providing the most rigorous energy certification in Europe. Based on simple, robust principles, the standard depends on high quality design and thorough construction with a focus on continuous airtightness, insulation, and solar gain to deliver exceptionally low energy performance and high internal comfort.

Besides the Passivhaus credentials, this exemplar project has taken sustainability a step further, with both new buildings specified entirely in welsh timber. The stand-alone elliptical pod building is the focal point of this and marks the first brettstapel school building in the UK. Brettstapel is a lesser-known construction type that originates from Germany that makes use of fast growing, low-grade soft wood, a resource readily available on the welsh market. The dry-fit system reduces the need for intensive manufacturing methods, and eliminates the use of toxic glues or bonds.
Visually the development evokes a strong connection to nature, from the timber cladding and construction to the wood fibre, ply finishes and Brettstapel aesthetic. Met with the profound efficiency of Passivhaus, the new extension will truly reflect the schools commitment to ecology (as members of the eco-schools committee), and will become a benchmark within the region for future sustainable development and an exemplar for the 21st Century Schools Programme.

The Passivhaus building, currently awaiting accreditation, will to support the school operations, delivering a continuous low- energy healthy building that will benefit from dramatically reduced utility bills, in the region of a 70% - 90% saving on a similar traditional build.

ELEMENTAL U-VALUES
Wall: 0.103
Roof: 0.095
Floor: 0.080
Windows (uninstalled): 0.69
Doors (uninstalled): 1.0
Window g-value: 0.6

MATERIALS
Walls: Timber frame, Larsen truss, Warmcel insulation, timber rainscreen cladding
Roof: Timber I-beams, Warmcel insulation, zinc roofing (vented)
Floor: 250mm Concrete Slab on 250mm EPS insulation
Windows (uninstalled): Internorm HF310 passivhaus windows
Doors (uninstalled): Schueco ADS 90 PL.SI doors

PASSIVHAUS PERFORMANCE - Predicted
Thermal Energy demand: 14kWh/m2.a
Primary E demand: 120kWh/m2.a
PH Performance -Actual
ACH@50pascals: (n50) 0.56 air changes per hour @ 50Pa