Scotland

Providing care at Antonine House

Antonine Care Home

A £9.1 million state-of-the- art care facility is currently under construction in Bearsden.

Antonine House is a three-and-a-half storey facility being built on Roman Road to provide care for the elderly and those living with dementia. Muir Construction is the main contractor for the project, whilst McLennan Partnership Ltd is the architect.

Antonine House will be owned and operated by family-run care provider Meallmore Ltd with funding from the Bank of Ireland. Meallmore Ltd is the largest privately-owned care provider in Scotland and the completion of Antonine House will be the company’s twentieth care facility to date.

The building has been sensitively planned and designed to tastefully blend contemporary features with a traditional form that works well with the surrounding neighbourhood and historic location.

Antonine Care Home

Work began in January 2012 and the building comprises a lower ground floor, ground floor and first floor, with a second floor housed within the roof of the structure. Precast concrete panels are being installed in order to form the internal and external walls of the building, whilst the roof will be covered in slate.

Each floor within Antonine House will comprise bedrooms and associated living accommodation, whilst all of the living areas will include modern fixtures and fittings, with a number of high-tech and luxury finishes. Executive suites will be available and in total, the care home will comprise 81 bedrooms.

Additional features will include a state-of-the-art cinema room, hairdressing and beauty salon, external roof terrace, underfloor heating, timber frame windows and a duel heating system that comprises natural gas and biomass. Pod en-suite wet rooms are also being incorporated and will be installed via a crane as the superstructure is erected.

Antonine Care Home

All of the plant equipment and ancillary areas will be located on the lower ground floor of the facility, away from residents’ living quarters. The ancillary rooms have been designed to fit around the structure’s retaining walls in order to make the best use of the facility’s space.

External features include a secure courtyard garden which has been sensitively designed to consider the needs of older people. Efforts have been made to retain existing trees where possible, which will be supplemented with additional landscaping. A car park will also be provided.

Michael Gillespie, Facilities Manager, Meallmore Ltd, said:

“Antonine House is being built in a very historic area of Scotland as it’s located on a former Roman site opposite Bearsden Roman Baths. Part of the Antonine Wall is located on the site so the planning and design process for this project had to be sensitively managed and developed to ensure we could bring forward proposals for a building that was sympathetic to the surrounding area.

Antonine Care Home

“For example, the external finishes will include slate, stone and render – not your typical materials for a care home.  These are being included to respect the historic look of the surrounding area, whilst we’ve also designed the building to work around the Antonine Wall so that it doesn’t get disturbed.”

“The site was definitely challenging but we’re confident we’ve found the perfect solution for developing on this sensitive site. We’ve had a lot of positive support in the area, which makes all the difference when working on a site, and we anticipate that this will be a great facility when it is completed.

“At Meallmore Ltd our aim is to provide top quality care and Antonine House will provide the best possible environment in which to do this.”

Antonine Care Home

McLennan Partnership Ltd Company Director, Steven Innes added:

“We’ve previously worked on three or four care homes but Antonine House is slightly different as it is a care facility aimed at the higher end of the market. This is a great opportunity for McLennan Partnership Ltd to be involved with and once it is complete it will become a valuable asset for the community.”

Antonine House is scheduled for completion in December 2012.

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