Care Home for the Epilepsy Society

The Epilepsy Society - founded in 1892 - purchased a farm near Chalfont St Peter in 1894 to create a permanent home for the organisation and a place where people with epilepsy could work. Though a number of buildings have subsequently been constructed on the site to provide homes for epileptics, in 1942 it had reached its maximum number of residents (575). Some of the buildings constructed in around 1900 are listed of architectural importance.

This plan required the demolition of 11 non listed buildings and the construction of 5 new care homes plus a state of the art genetics centre. KB² were invited to advise on the structural engineering of the new buildings, the first two having a construction value of £4.5 million.

We carried out an appraisal of the generic ground conditions, all the new buildings and undertook a limited probe and bore hole investigation. This established the presence of chalk underlying an upper superficial layer of gravel and clay with variable composition. The Epilepsy Society site is in an area which is known to be susceptible to instability associated with the collapse of dissolution features within the underlying chalk - the investigation confirmed this as a potential problem.

The foundation solution for the first two buildings adopted the use of reinforced concrete strip foundations with cruciform ends bearing into the superficial deposits. The results of detailed site investigations showed that the variations in the strength of the superficial deposits were greater than had been previously thought, and the depths of the strip foundations were increased as a result. The pre-construction phase for the remaining four buildings will include further detailed site investigations and a consideration of the use of piled foundations to remove the risk associated with increased ground works cost.

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