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The brief for Powys County Council’s
new IT and adult learner building
was routine: minimise running
costs, maximise flexibility. But,
JPW Associate’s solution for the scheme in
Machynlleth, Wales, is anything but routine.
The multi-disciplinary consultancy and
contractor’s answer to the brief has been to
design the UK’s first Passivhaus Institutcertified
office building.
Canolfan Hyddgen (the Stag Centre) was
completed in January 2009. Since then
the designers have been monitoring the
building. Remarkably, the results show
the ultra-low energy building is actually
performing better than predicted. Its
outstanding performance has set a new
standard for low-energy office design, a
fact reinforced by the pioneering project
winning the New Build category at this
year’s CIBSE Building Performance
Awards, which were held in February.
Office case sTudy cibse AwArd winner
For JPW Associates, a Passivhaus
solution was the obvious choice for the
council’s new building. The practice had
just completed the design and construction
of the first Passivhaus-certified domestic
property in the UK, so the team was already
familiar with Passivhaus principles and
standards. What’s more, the Passivhaus
home had been built close to where the
Passivhaus office was to be constructed,
which also happened to be near to the
Centre for Alternative Technology, so
the local planners and building control
understood low energy construction
techniques.
design challenge
While the designers had proposed a
Passivhaus solution for the 443 sq m
scheme, grant funding under the Welsh
Assembly’s Pathfinder Programme was
dependent upon the building achieving a
www.cibsejournal.com April 2011 CIBSE Journal 35