Green Gown Awards 2016 – Built Environment – University of Aberdeen - Winner

Actively reducing energy use by going ‘passive’

Presented with the challenge of building a fit-for-purpose, early-years childcare facility for the children of its staff and students, the University of Aberdeen could have settled for good but not great; simple but not special; bigger but not bolder.

Instead it chose to stretch the institutional commitment to energy efficient construction. The result is the first fully certified Passive House Nursery in Scotland and the first at a Scottish University. It is also a wonderful, child-friendly facility, designed to reflect best practice in early-years care, and which will provide an excellent, sustainable venue for the youngest members of the University community for years to come.

The project has helped to build capacity in the local construction sector, with the majority of the contractors involved in their first ever Passive House project. It has also become a focal point in the region for discussing and sharing knowledge on low energy design.

Top 3 learnings

1 The importance of a shared sense of endeavour and comprehensive buy-in from ALL internal & external project personnel was integral to our project’s success

2 All contractors need to be willing to adopt and adapt to a very different site mentality AND there needs to be very tight control of ALL contractors on site.

3 Anyone who’s ever watched TV ‘design’ shows will know – it’s always the specialist windows that cause the delays … so try to make sure your project timetable can cope.

CO2t Savings: 9  
Actual/Estimated: Estimated
No. of yrs: 1

Videos

• Actively reducing energy use by going ‘passive’ (click to hide)