Kylna Court is a mixed-use development located in Hemel Hempstead, designed for Dacorum Borough Council. The £12M project comprises 79 residential apartments—including 39 for shared ownership—and 300m² of office/workshop space. This development provides essential housing and employment opportunities in a growing urban centre.
Following close collaboration with a geotechnical engineer and piling contractor, we evaluated several foundation strategies, including bridging over deep fill areas. A cost-effective piled-raft foundation solution was adopted to accommodate the highly variable ground conditions and mitigate risks from potential solution features.
The building’s structure includes a reinforced concrete (RC) frame with shear walls, RC columns, and flat slabs—all supported on the piled foundation system. Due to the bespoke architectural elements of the scheme, custom structural designs were developed and coordinated to meet both aesthetic and performance criteria.
To resolve the sewer constraint, we proposed a slight (500mm) repositioning of the building, allowing all structural elements to remain outside the exclusion zone around the pipe. This avoided the need for a costly diversion and was approved by Thames Water.
Surface water drainage was another critical aspect. Although soakaways were feasible, the risk of triggering new solution features led to a different approach. Surface water is now collected via attenuation tanks beneath the car park and discharged to public sewers at a controlled rate, in line with planning requirements limiting discharge to greenfield runoff levels.
