Celebrating Castle Bailey Quad certification
Our project at Castle Bailey Quad, St Peter’s College, Oxford has recently been certified to the Passive House Institute’s Low Energy Building (LEB) standard. The new student accommodation provides 54 bedrooms across four storeys and received 'Student Accommodation Project of the Year' at the Education Property Awards.
The LEB standard offers the same level of design and construction quality assurance as Passivhaus Classic, but with slightly relaxed performance criteria which can be suited to challenging building forms.
Located in the heart of historic Oxford there were a number of challenges in achieving the LEB standard, not least the awkward form factor dictated by the site, the constraints of interfacing with Oxford’s historic city walls, and a noisy street limiting the ability of occupants to open windows.
Our director, Chris Swinburn, led the Passivhaus design from the earliest stages, carefully navigating the design team through these challenges to deliver an optimised design that meets the highest architectural standards while being low energy in operation and comfortable for occupants.
Key features of our approach included:
🧱Overheating strategy based on natural ventilation through ‘hit and miss’ brickwork panels, which also provide shade and architectural interest
☀️Summer boost ventilation to control overheating in areas adjacent to the noisy road
💧Waste water heat recovery, reducing shower hot water use by 40%
🌡️Microbore pipework to minimise hot water distribution losses
During site stage we worked closely with the contractor to support the training of subcontractors, monitoring of quality, and collation of final Certification evidence.
The PHI Low Energy Building standard comfortably achieved St Peter’s College’s low-energy sustainability standard for new build, supporting the college’s goal to be net-zero in operation across its estate by 2035.
Are you developing university accommodation and need to deliver low energy buildings to meet your sustainability targets? Get in touch with us today!
We specialise in large and complex projects, countrywide.