Hull Maritime sets course for Passivhaus visitor centre

A new maritime visitor attraction in Hull’s historic North End Shipyard is set to become one of the UK’s few Passivhaus certified buildings in the heritage & cultural sector. The project, ‘Hull: Yorkshire’s Maritime City’, began when Hull was UK City of Culture in 2017 and has included city-wide regeneration and place-making, aiming to safeguard Hull’s maritime history and architecture. Regeneration of the vacant North End Shipyard includes a vibrant new visitor centre aiming for Passivhaus certification, to encourage locals and visitors to explore this part of the city.

North End Ship Yard, Image Credit: Purcell

The site development also includes a dry dock and the Arctic Corsair, Hull’s last remaining sidewinder trawler, as well as the restoration of a 20^th Century Scotch Derrick Crane. Aiming to also reconnect Hull’s waterfront with other key maritime sites, the new North End Shipyard will tell firsthand stories of life at sea, and highlight the significance of Queen’s Gardens (former Queen’s Dock) in the maritime story of Hull’s old town.

Key Stats

Build start date: 2021

Completion due: 2023

Project stage: Tender

Occupants: 135,000 annual visitors estimate

TFA: 290m²

Construction type: Concrete & timber frame

North End Ship Yard, Image credit: Purcell

The project is at design stage and is set to open in 2023, welcoming 135,000 visitors a year. The two-storey visitor centre has been developed to be sympathetic to Hull’s industrial past, whilst creating a cutting-edge low-carbon building fit for the 21^st Century. The scheme includes:

An entrance space
Extensive exhibitions telling the story of the Arctic Corsair and the heyday of Hull’s trawling industry
An interactive learning space designed to engage and educate

Through our design of a new visitor centre to Passivhaus standard as a key aspect of the Hull Maritime project, this significant yet overlooked area of the city will be rejuvenated and brought back into use as a visitor destination in its own right.

Owen Plummer, Senior Architect at Purcell

Construction

Wall

Ground floor: Concrete due to flood protection

Upper Floor: Timber

U-value: 0.126 / 0.098 W/(m²K)

Floor

Concrete
U-value: 0.07/0.106 W/(m²K)

Roof

Timber
U-value: 0.077 W/(m²K)

The 500m²Passivhaus building will include highly insulated building fabric, doors and windows, and incorporate an MVHR system, ensuring air quality and comfort. Thanks to drastic reductions in energy use provided by targeting Passivhaus, the remaining tiny energy demand will be met via renewable technologies on-site. Hull City Council has set a target of carbon neutrality by 2030, and the new visitor centre will help achieve that by targeting net-zero carbon in operation.

Predicted Energy Performance

Airtightness (≤0.6ACH@50pascals)	0.6 ACH@50pascals
Thermal Energy Demand (≤15kWh/m².yr)	12 kWh/m².yr
Thermal Energy Load (≤10W/m²)	10 W/m²

These highly ambitious plans will not only create a new visitor attraction that will showcase Hull’s many maritime stories, but also achieve the best energy efficient standards. This will be a remarkable achievement and demonstrates our continued commitment to sustainability and to Hull becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Daren Hale, Hull City Councillor