BAM has started site clearance for Scotland’s first leisure centre designed to meet passivhaus-standards.

The £36m Blairgowrie Recreation Centre will be Scotland’s first ultra-low energy swimming pool and leisure centre.

Designed by Holmes Miller architects, the building is only the second in the UK – to achieve Passivhaus certification, after Willmott Dixon’s pioneering £44m leisure centre project in Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey.

A replacement for the Perthshire town’s current 41-year old facility, the development is being funded by Perth and Kinross Council and delivered through Hub East Central Scotland.

As well as a  six-lane competition swimming pool, the new centre will feature a games hall, sports hall, dance studio, fitness suite and classroom space and an external all-weather sports pitch.

It will deliver the physical education curriculum for Blairgowrie High School, while also providing leisure facilities to the local community.