St Sidwell’s Point will be one of the world’s most energy efficient leisure centres. It will be the first leisure centre in the UK built to the super energy efficient Passivhaus standard, which is expected to eventually save up to 70 per cent on annual energy costs. Due to a special filtration system the pools will have exceptional water quality with minimal chemical content, which will greatly improve the experience for swimmers compared to a standard pool.
The landmark building is a grand design. It has been modelled to withstand predicted changes in climate conditions up to 2080. St Sidwell’s Point will replace the aging Pyramids swimming pool and is expected to attract thousands of visitors a year. The state-of-the-art new leisure complex will feature an eight-lane main pool and four lane pool for learners, both with moveable floors.
Passivhaus requires the quality of workmanship to be higher than is typically accepted in the UK. This has been a challenge for everyone involved within the project as everyone has had to change the way they work and think about the project. The use of digital tools has enabled Kier to facilitate this change. It was a challenge to implement solutions such as BIMXtra and Snagmaster early on during the project, but our focus was always on the people, they are at the heart of this transformation. We scheduled numerous trainings sessions with all parties involved from the client to temporary works subcontractors. Now that the project is during the construction phase, it is beginning to show that the digital upskilling that was done has been a complete success.
Much like our safety standards in Kier, we see our supply chain begin to adopt the same standards that we require on all our sites. The same is happening on St Sidwells where some of the subcontractors have begun to embrace and use our digital standards throughout their businesses. (GWorks – Snagmaster) As our supply chain use our systems more, we are collecting a huge amount of data that can be reported against for KPIs etc on a business level, but also on a project level.
The project’s digital capabilities will not finish once construction has been completed, we intend to assist/upskill the client in the use of digital tools during handover and operation to assist them in the running and maintenance of the building with using systems such as Matterport and CAFM, which have yet to be agreed.
We haven’t used any pioneering software on this project, we have put the people first and chosen the software based on what they require, and this is paying off not just in quality, programme but also financially. It has changed everyone’s mindset on the project that technology is not longer a hinderance, but asset to them.
Key achievements
- Use of software – Kubity GO, Snagmaster and Holobuilder
- Collaboration – the use of BIMXtra and Teams
- Quality – using digital tools to enforce the passivhaus standard
