The industry is currently in a learning phase, adapting to these new requirements while simultaneously building and deploying new facilities.. 4.

, Bryden Wood as architects and engineers, and the prototyping and fabricating company.The building’s landmark status comes from the culmination of many years of thinking and development.

It delivers a raft of benefits to the built environment and significant reductions in embodied and operational carbon..Embodied carbon calculations were undertaken by Cundall, on behalf of Landsec.Cundall updated the calculations at every stage of design, from the Business as Usual (BaU) design in 2018, the incorporation of P-DfMA by Bryden Wood in 2019, through to completion in 2023.

The BaU scheme was a traditionally designed office building with a steel frame and a concrete slab, a large basement beneath both buildings and gas fired heating system.In contrast, the built scheme used P-DfMA, worked to minimise the size of the basement and decarbonised the MEP services using heat pumps..

The results showed that the upfront carbon (the carbon used on day one to manufacture the materials, transport them to site, and to install them) was reduced by.

between the BaU scheme and the as-built performance of the P-DfMA scheme.Passivhaus is a well-established, international building performance standard that delivers resilient, ultra-low energy consumption buildings, whilst maintaining the highest levels of occupant thermal comfort and air quality experience..

This is delivered through a keen focus on a fabric first approach that seeks to reduce space heating demand which can be met either through useful solar gains, internal gains or via modern, high efficiency and low carbon heating systems..The facade performance in a Passivhaus building goes well beyond current UK Building Regulations, though a combination of highly insulated walls, high-performing windows and by ensuring “thermal bridging” around windows, doors and junctions is reduced to as close to zero as possible.

This contrasts with traditional building construction, where these elements account for upwards of 10% of the building’s heat loss..The design must achieve the following targets to gain Passivhaus certification:.