Thermal breaks specialist, Armatherm, was recently selected to play a pivotal role in the rebuild of Currie Community High School, Edinburgh, Scotland, in the attempt to reach Passivhaus status and contribute to the city reaching net zero by 2030. Architype along with Goodson Associates, a team of Passivhaus experts working on the project, reached out to Armatherm to help make Currie Community High School the first Passivhaus secondary school in Edinburgh.

After plans were announced by the Scottish Government in January 2023 to introduce a new minimum environment design standard that was equivalent to that of Passivhaus status, 35 new schools are in the pipeline to be built under the City of Edinburgh Council’s new school programme. Currie Community High School will be the first secondary school with this status and is scheduled to open early 2025.

Under Architype’s design plans, the high school will be a hub for the community with state-of the art leisure facilities and a contemporary vision that meets modern teaching needs. The 10,255㎡ construction will be built using a composite concrete slab with a steel frame system and Armatherm 500 thermal break material will be placed between the concrete pad foundations and steel framework. Other Armatherm products were also used to thermally break Brise Soleil steelworks and other plant support steelwork which was required to penetrate the robust thermal envelope.

In order for a building to reach Passivhaus status, it must not use more than 15 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per square metre (m2) of floor area per year for heating and use no more than 60kWh/m2 of primary energy per year. By incorporating Armatherm 500 thermal breaks into the design, it will minimise the energy loss through the building envelopes and therefore reduce the amount of energy used to power the building.

Due to the nature of the construction, Armatherm 500 was the ideal choice of material because of its capability of supporting the column weight of the steel framework whilst preventing thermal bridging with its great thermal properties (thermal conductivity) which is common with these types of structures.

Paul Beech, the Commercial Director of Armatherm, commented “It has been an honour to have worked to help the design team  and City of Edinburgh council to help move the city towards its goal of hitting net zero by 2030 and ensuring that the new Currie Community High School reaches Passivhaus status, in line with the country’s new construction standards. It is imperative now more than ever before, that leaders in the industry move towards more sustainable construction and this high school will be the first in Edinburgh to be ecologically conscious. Our Armatherm 500 material will eliminate the risk of thermal bridging, therefore, improving the insulation of the building and energy costs, whilst securing a Passivhaus status for the school.”

Euan Kerr, Associate Engineer at Goodson Associates comments “From the moment we reached out to Armatherm to discuss their product offering they have been of massive assistance. They spent time talking us through the capabilities of their various thermal breaks in detail and together we worked to specify the most suitable solution for this project. We would recommend reaching out to Paul Beech and his team for anyone looking to undertake similar Passivhaus projects of this nature”.

For more information about Armatherm and its range of thermal break products, please
visit www.armatherm.com/ or contact sales@armatherm.com.