The new Builyeon Road Primary School is a new 4,000m² educational facility, located within a new-build residential development in South Queensferry.

Commissioned by the City of Edinburgh Council, the school project will accommodate 420 primary school pupils and 128 nursery pupils. As part of the plans, a two-court hall will be constructed along with an external 2G artificial pitch, with these sports facilities open to the wider community.

The building will be designed and certified to the Passivhaus classic standard and will adopt the principles of the Net Zero Public Sector Building Standard (NZPSBS).

Within the project brief, City of Edinburgh Council has placed significant importance on energy performance, carbon, and sustainability, with the hope that the new Builyeon Road Primary School will provide a best-in-class template of what can be achieved in the construction of new schools.

Carbon Futures is appointed as the Net Zero Champion, providing Whole Life Carbon Assessments to inform the design choices and ensure that the project’s carbon targets are achieved. Carbon modelling has been undertaken throughout the design stages with the results then utilised by the design team to guide their specification of materials, products and systems.

We are also providing expert advice on the entirety of the Net Zero objectives, in line with the NZPSBS and City of Edinburgh Council’s objectives.

Within the project brief, the local authority has placed importance on energy performance, carbon and sustainability, with the hope that the new Builyeon Road Primary School can provide a best-in-class template of what can be achieved.

In keeping with the Passivhaus standard, this project has pursued a fabric first approach to vigorously reduce heat and energy demand.

The new primary school has a very efficient form factor and is predominately orientated North to South, ensuring spaces take advantage of northern solar gain, and mitigate southern solar gain with solar shading and optimised glazing strategy.

The building is a simple form, with the fabric optimised by high-performance insulation. This design choice achieves low U-values, resulting in a reduction of the overall heat demand.

Air Source Heat Pumps efficiently provide heating to each space, and hot water to the kitchen. Point of Use Hot Water units are utilised within low usage areas, minimising water storage and circulation.

Local, room in room Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) units will be provided to all reaching spaces, supplying fresh air that mitigates overheating and also reduces the building’s heat load. The units include a summer bypass and night-time purge mode to admit cool external air and improve indoor environmental quality during warmer periods. This is supported by openable windows, to further enhance ventilation during warmer months.

The energy strategy is further complemented by energy-efficient LED lighting, and renewable Photovoltaic arrays.

Builyeon Road Primary School will also utilise Electric Arc Furnace produced steel to reduce the embodied carbon within the sub and super-structure, along with GGBS concrete.

O’ Donnell Brown
Narro Associates
Hawthorne Boyle
Armour Construction
Kerr Baxter Associates