Refurbishment and extension of a primary school building to meet requirements for Enerphit – the Passive House standard for refurbishments.

Structural investigation of the existing 1950s school building was required, with development of co-ordinated bespoke details to achieve the required thermal, solar, daylighting and airtightness performance associated with the Enerphit standard.

Remedial works to the existing drainage were developed, and additional car parking and access routes into the re-oriented playground and school grounds were developed along with associated surface water attenuation.

The existing building is of loadbearing masonry construction with a mixture of timber and beam-and-block floors and roofs. As part of the proposed works the existing building will be entirely overclad to improve the thermal performance, with alterations to the number and locations of window and door openings to suit Enerphit daylighting and solar performance.

Cantilevered brise-soleil structures were provided where required to provide solar shading. The new extension is proposed to be formed of timber framed construction, with bespoke details having been developed to tie in with the retained existing building.