A multi award-winning development for the UK’s sports sector, SportPark, opened in 2010 in the º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ Science & Enterprise Park (LUSEP) with support from Government, Sport England, Charnwood Borough Council and Leicestershire County Council. Its £9m sustainable development got underway in November 2021.
SportPark Pavilion 4 will be built to Passivhaus Classic Accreditation to significantly reduce CO2 emissions. This will enable occupants to reduce their carbon footprint and operating costs thanks to highly efficient heat pumps, opening triple-glazed windows for natural ventilation, solar shading to avoid summer overheating, and continuous and well-insulated building fabric to minimise heat loss.
This development is one of four key infrastructure projects to be delivered by the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) as part of the Getting Building Fund. º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ is fully committed to decarbonising its estate to meet the Government’s zero carbon target by 2050, with significant progress by 2040.
The University aims to reflect this sustainable commitment in the student experience, highlighted by our School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering master’s students being offered the unique opportunity to hear first-hand from the project delivery team. They were also invited to a site visit to see all the theory and plans in action and get a true feel for what it is like to be on site at a Passivhaus project.
Project Manager Neil Sleigh from Henry Brothers, the lead contractors of the development, said: “Henry Brothers is committed to both supporting the next generation of construction professionals and achieving a net-zero strategy throughout the business. We welcome the opportunity to share our expertise in sustainable development with students at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, and the Passivhaus development of SportPark Pavilion 4 is an excellent project for them to follow.”
Joel Callow from Beyond Carbon Associates commented: “It has been really important to hear what students think about the development and to explain to them how we can tackle our present situation so that our future in climate change is not a crisis, but hopefully something much better.”
Construction Management MSc student Shiv Shankhar Ramanandam added: “I feel that what we see in practice embeds in our mind more than what you learn in theory, so º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ has done a great job by arranging this site visit for us.”
SportPark Pavilion 4 is scheduled for completion in winter 2022.
For further details about SportPark Pavilion 4, please visit the website.