Pitlochry Care Home, Balhousie Care Group, Atholl Medical Centre, Building, Development, Scotland

Pitlochry Care Home : Building

Scottish Highlands Architecture – design by Campbell and Arnott Architects, Scotland

24 Feb 2009

Pitlochry Care Home

Perthshire, Scotland

Design: Campbell and Arnott Architects

The Pitlochry Care Home, for Balhousie Care Group, is located only a few minutes walk from Pitlochry High Street and completes the larger recently completed Healthcare development located within what was formerly undeveloped woodland.

images from architect

The Pitlochry Care Home is part of the larger Public/Private sector development which brings together several Healthcare facilities onto a single site to provide a new Community Hospital, Medical Centre for a local GP practice and bases for District Nurses, Health Visitors and Scottish Ambulance Service. The Care Home provides 50 bed units.

The setting for the whole development is exceptional, located on open pasture surrounded on all sides by mature oak woodland, on rising ground. The contours of the site and the extent of, and the desire to retain, the mature oak woodland was a deciding factor in the design of the overall development, providing wonderful views out onto the sloping woodland and new landscaped gardens. The development radiates of the single curving access road which enters the site on the eastern side and terminates in the south-west corner in front of the new Care Home.

The Care Home is a contemporary 2 storey, L-shaped building addressing and complementing the Hospital development. The main entrance and lounge areas to the front of the building are distinguished by the blue rendered blocks projecting out of the main building mass covered by a lower level canopy roof. The main entrance is centrally placed, easily identifiable, giving controlled access to the main staircase and lift lobby, overlooked by the managers office allowing visitors through to the two wings with bedrooms stretching out to the north-west and north-east. The wings on each floor contain a ‘House’ unit with 10 or 11 bedrooms each with lounge area and sanitary facilities. An additional 7 bedroomed ‘House’ is provided on the first floor, above the service area, bringing the total number of bedrooms to 50. One of the ‘Houses’ on the ground floor has been designated a Dementia wing. Service areas such as kitchen, laundry room and staff facilities are all located on the ground floors back corner with a separate service entrance.

The building design takes advantage of its location by maximising the use of natural ventilation and ensuring high levels of daylighting throughout the building with its large glazed areas.
This along with careful attention to interior design and selection of materials has created a non-institutional environment which still manages to adhere to all of the Care Commission’s and Building Standards requirements.

The long awaited, privately run Pitlochry Care Home reached completion in January 2009.