Currie Community High School

As of May 2025, construction of the new £65 million Currie Community High School in Edinburgh is nearly complete, meaning it can be assessed for Passivhaus certification.

A host of schools currently being built across Scotland are aiming to achieve the standard, many funded in part through the Learning Estates Investment Programme (LEIP). As one of the first recipients of funding, and one of the first projects to reach completion, Currie Community High School will also become one of the country’s first schools to complete the assessment process.

“A key element of the Passivhaus standard is airtightness,” said Cameron Galloway, Site Manager at Kier Construction. “The Proctor Group’s Wraptite® membranes were therefore key products for us.” A preliminary air test carried out in early 2025 achieved a result of 0.44 air changes per hour (ach) – standing the school in good stead to surpass the Passivhaus requirement of 0.6 ach.

Different Construction Methods Require Different Wraptite Membranes

Currie Community High School has been designed to provide 1,000 student places across three floors, with a focus on daylight, indoor air quality and healthy, natural materials, plus spaces for outdoor learning. The community aspect of the project features amenities including a library, sensory garden, and public allotments.

As well as the comfort benefits that come from attaining Passivhaus accreditation, the building’s low energy performance is designed to contribute to the City of Edinburgh Council’s net zero goals.

Sport and leisure facilities on the site include a swimming pool, meaning the school will have one of the few Passivhaus-certified pools in the UK; Kier Construction previously delivered the first certified leisure centre in the country, at St Sidwell’s Point in Exeter.

While most of the high school is of steel frame construction, the pool hall uses a cross laminated timber (CLT) structure. “We wanted to protect the timber kit as soon as possible,” said Cameron, “so for that part of the building we used Wraptite UV. It offered us a longer exposure time than the standard Wraptite, meaning we could complete that part of the building early on.”

Wraptite UV is typically offered for use behind open-jointed cladding, but in this instance supported the specific goals of the project following advice from the Proctor Group technical team.

Wraptite membrane was then used across the rest of the site. Both Wraptite products offer a combination of airtightness and vapour permeability, helping to meet low energy goals without increasing condensation risk in the structure. The self-adhered nature of the two membranes creates a consistent airtight seal without the need for a primer, saving on labour and material costs.

Delivering Quality Through Technical Support and Shared Learning

In addition to his site management duties, Cameron Galloway also served as the Passivhaus Manager for the site. It was his first experience of managing the quality assurance required for certification, and his first experience of seeing Wraptite installed on a project.

“I had to familiarise myself with technical guidance for the product, and check the work of the specialist contractors installing the products,” Cameron explained. “The installers also received good technical support from Linda Kay (Regional Sales Manager at the Proctor Group), who visited site a few times.”

Manufacturer support extended to being able to supply extra rolls of membrane at short notice when it became clear there wasn’t quite enough on site. “Using a local supply chain was to our advantage,” said Cameron.

For this project, Cameron had a ‘mini’ steel frame sample built on site, using which the team could test interface details and carry out a few airtightness tests before installation started in earnest. He said: “It was reassurance about what would work – for example, sticking the Wraptite to a roofing membrane. Working through these details acted as a sense check and helped us learn lessons.”

Such an approach is increasingly common, with similar samples constructed at both Faifley Community Campus and Liberton High (also in Edinburgh).

The initial airtightness results suggest the approach paid off for Currie Community High School. With the school’s design and performance modelled to cope with predicted changes in climate to the year 2080, the use of both types of Wraptite membrane has helped to achieve the goal of delivering a facility that will serve generations to come.