Kier wins £65m Passivhaus contract

Kier has been confirmed on a £65m Passivhaus school contract in Edinburgh.

The building, Passivhaus Currie Community High School, will be one of the secondary schools built to the environmental standard in Scotland.

Features of Passivhaus include a reduction in total energy usage by up to 70 per cent compared with traditional builds.

To adhere to the standard, the building must have good air quality, advanced insulation and be strongly airtight.

Edinburgh Council has set itself a net-zero commitment to ensure that all new-build and refurbishment projects are sustainable.

As reported by Construction News earlier today, there are also plans for a law to ensure all new homes in Scotland align with the standards in future.

Kier landed the school job through the Crown Commercial Services framework.

Last year there were fears that cost inflation could reduce the ambition of the scheme, leading Edinburgh councillors to call for it not to be watered down. At the time, the council said that the cost of the project was unknown as its preferred contractor had not yet carried out its full market testing.

In an announcement on the school contract on Thursday (19 January), Kier Construction North & Scotland regional director Phil McDowell said: “This is a really unique project, which not only creates an outstanding new school, but also aligns to the council’s net-zero targets. Everything about the new school has been designed with the focus of minimising energy usage and creating a healthy environment for generations to come.”

Scotland’s education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the project represented part of a £2bn investment in schools.

Consultants Faithful+Gould are providing project-management and design services to the City of Edinburgh Council on the project.

Last year Kier completed a Passivhaus leisure centre called St Sidwell’s Point in Exeter, Devon.

In a trading statement yesterday, the contractor said its financial performance for the six months ending 31 December 2022, set to be announced in March, are in line with its expectations.

It added its order book at 31 December 2022 is expected to be around £10.1bn, an increase of around £0.2bn from the same point in the previous year and £2.1bn higher than in the first half of 2022.