The first secondary school in the UK to use energy-saving Passivhaus design principles is being built for the Harris Foundation in the south London borough of Sutton.
The highly insulated building will require less heating in winter and will be cooler in the summer, with solar gain controlled by Maple’s Zenith brise soleil system. The system, which will be supplied as pre-fabricated cassettes to reduce installation time and reduce costs, permits light but not direct sun.
Ben Humphries, from project architects Architype, said pupils will feel “more alert” because rooms will not have “the stuffy feeling that occurs in afternoon classes, generated by artificial heat and light in conventional schools”.
Maple’s brise soleil systems are already used across a range of residential, commercial and public buildings. However, they have an increasingly important role to play in ‘passive’ building technology.
Contractors Willmott Dixon say that “achieving Passivhaus (accreditation) is a very technical feat” and is based on a ‘fabric first’ approach. Maple’s contribution to the fabric of the building will be supplied and installed to four areas of the new £36m secondary school, which is due to welcome its first pupils in 2019.