Two Rivers Primary School

The new Two Rivers Primary School in Keynsham, on the outskirts of Bristol, is an innovative building on the Hygge Park estate which will have space to accommodate up to 420 pupils.

The school will be operated by the Wellsway Multi-Academy Trust and its design and construction will meet Passivhaus environmental standards. Passivhaus is an international low energy design standard which minimises the environmental impact of buildings and uses the best approaches to renewable energy, heating and energy conservation.

ISG construction are the main contractor on the project and they worked closely with architect, Hatcher Prichard, and a Passivhaus consultant on this project. To achieve Passivhaus Plus the school has to meet the same comfort and heating demand limits as standard Passivhaus, and also satisfy more onerous total energy and renewable energy generation requirements.

The school will produce its own energy from photovoltaic panels on the roof. The building benefits from an airtight form during construction with high levels of insulation with no thermal bridging. The windows are high performance and triple glazed and doors have insulated frames. An air-source heat pump provides efficient heating in winter and a mechanical ventilation system helps with heat recovery. All services in the school are fully electric and hot water is supplied by instantaneous point-of-use water heaters. This avoids unnecessary heat gains from hot circulation pipework. All of these elements will create a building that has a low impact on the environment, is energy efficient and is generating its own power.

During the construction phase, Easi-Edge provided 380 LM of edge protection barriers to keep the site secure, protecting pedestrians and providing a safe working environment for workers.

Two Rivers Primary school is the first school of its kind for the Department of Education to achieve a Passivhaus Plus environmental certificate. The certificate shows that the school is utilising the concepts behind Passivhaus design, such as calculated energy loss, heat gain, and generating enough power from renewable sources to operate the building throughout the year. Two Rivers Primary school offers a blueprint that others can follow in the future to help all schools reduce the amount of energy and emissions required.