Great Dixter House & Gardens, New Visitor Building
Infrastructure Appraisal for New Visitor Building
Client: Great Dixter Charitable Trust
Status: Completed
OVERVIEW
JGC were appointed to undertake a site survey and assess the existing service infrastructure at Great Dixter House and Gardens, East Sussex. Great Dixter is considering options to enhance its on-site catering and hospitality facilities by providing a new café and visitor space. JGC worked alongside Grimshaw Architects to provide early-stage feasibility advice on the mechanical, electrical, and public health service requirements for the proposed café, as well as broader advice on the condition and capacity of the existing site infrastructure.
The estate is in a rural area with limited access to primary utilities. The proposed location of the development site relative to the mains sewer posed a particular challenge for the intended foul drainage strategy. JGC collaborated with Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd to survey the existing drainage configuration and advise on how this could be adapted to enable the connection of the new café at the client’s preferred location on the site.
Our work included reviewing the existing distributed utility and sitewide services to understand how these might be utilised and reconfigured to serve the proposed café development. An outline of early-stage option appraisals was provided to summarise how the new building could be serviced, where incoming supplies could be sourced, and what new mechanical and electrical plant might be required to provide heating, ventilation, cooling, and power to the new facilities.