Willmott Dixon lands another Passivhaus scheme with University of Oxford accommodation project

Willmott Dixon has followed up its contract from Spelthorne Borough Council to build a Passivhaus leisure centre with a £11m project from University of Oxford’s St Peter’s College to deliver a student accommodation building that will also be Passivhaus.The project to create two buildings that will each be four storeys will provide 54 bedrooms for the college’s students. As well as meeting the ultra-low carbon Passivhaus Low Energy Building (LEB) standard, the buildings include a podium garden with paved and planted areas, as well as enhancing the existing Canal House garden and links to the main college site.To achieve Passivhaus LEB standard, the design will follow a ‘fabric first’ approach to achieve extremely low energy consumption and high occupant comfort, with a more relaxed target for space heating and airtightness, providing greater flexibility to the design of the building.The St Peter’s College project is the latest to benefit from Willmott Dixon’s extensive Passivhaus knowledge. As well as the Spelthorne contract award earlier this month, the company built the award winning £38m Harris Academy Sutton, the UK’s largest Passivhaus accredited secondary school. It also delivered Hackbridge Primary School, the UK’s first Passivhaus ‘Plus’ education facility, which consumes only 75% of the 100% renewable energy it generates, selling the remainder back to the grid.