The world’s first Passivhaus-certified leisure centre is about to open in Exeter on the site of the city's former bus station.
St Sidwell’s Point Leisure Centre is on track to open in April 2022 and is heralded as a global leader in energy efficiency boasting three swimming pools with moveable pool floors and spectator seating, a 150-station state-of-the-art gym, dance studio, health suite and spa, creche and cafe.
Specialist architects and engineers at award-winning architects practice Gale & Snowden, which has offices in Exeter and Bideford, are responsible for the Passivhaus design and creation of the exterior of the building, as well as thermally modelling the scheme to take account of future climate change scenarios, making it the lowest energy-running leisure centre yet.
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The forward-thinking company has a multi-disciplinary collaborative approach and is made up of architects, designers, physicists, biologists, engineers and Passivhaus experts all keen to make a positive impact to help address the environment and climate emergency.
Following a building biology “healthy building approach”, the St Sidwell’s Point design, amongst other things, uses non-toxic materials to help create high air-quality and high-quality water is achieved by a specialised filtration system to minimise the use of chlorine for the pools’ water. The filtration system is also estimated to use 50% less water than standard pool filtration.
Leading international design standard Passivhaus will reduce the energy use of the building by between 60% and 70%compared to an equivalent standard new leisure centre.
Energy use from buildings, which is a significant culprit of carbon emissions, which causes global warming, and the team at Gale & Snowden has used dynamic modelling to predict the building’s performance over the next 60 years to ensure that the building performs into the future as intended.
David Gale, director at Gale & Snowden, sid: “We are proud to put the UK at the forefront of low energy and healthy building design in the world. It is Gale & Snowden’s mission to change the world for the better and projects like St Sidwell’s Point lead the way to show how we can achieve a more sustainable future.”
Gale & Snowden is a multi-disciplinary and integrated team of collaborators who strive to optimise design solutions for energy and cost-efficiency as well as health and well-being — “defeating fuel poverty and improving quality of life”.
Leaders in healthy ecological design since 1992, Gale and Snowden is one of the top environmental architectural studios in the country, having won multiple awards and the first to deliver various types of Passivhaus-certified buildings in the UK. Gale & Snowden works throughout the UK and undertakes a range of low energy and healthy building projects including affordable housing, private homes, community buildings and schools within its remit, and are currently working on the world’s first Passivhaus-certified wet and dry sports centre in Surrey.
