Ministry of Defence

HM Naval Base, Faslane, on the river Clyde is home to the United Kingdom’s trident deterrent submarine force. In 2003 Havelock was invited to visit Faslane’s existing accommodation and tender for the Royal Navy’s vision for the future – a £125 million development that Naval chiefs had labelled ‘the UK’s best single living accommodation’.

Havelock gained pole position by inviting the selection panel to visit a prototype cabin at head office showroom in Dalgety Bay. The project was won in late 2004 and will be completed on schedule in 2009. When complete the grade one accommodation at Faslane will provide approximately 1800 cabins contained in eighteen accommodation blocks that will provide facilities on a par with a modern hotel.

Havelock's designers worked closely with the Ministry of Defence team to create a comfortable yet hard wearing environment that would provide military personnel with all the required comforts and facilities whilst they are stationed on base. Using expertise established in the hotel sector with clients such as Travelodge, Holiday Inn Express and City Inn, Havelock’s dedicated design team used a combination of textures and surfaces to provide a functional yet attractive modern environment.

Working in partnership with shell contractor AMEC, Havelock delivered a turnkey service fitting each room-out with bespoke storage, work surfaces and desks and sleeping accommodation. As you would expect, works are scheduled to accommodate strict security on site. Careful project management and co-ordination of personnel and logistics is required to ensure the smooth operations and schedule are kept.

The new accommodation will be classed in Ministry of Defence terms as a ‘super mess’ with on site shops, cafeterias, bowling and cinema facilities being added in due course providing the MoD with a template for the future of military accommodation in the UK.