2007 Yearbook

INSTITUTE OF HISTORIC BUILDING CONSERVATION YEARBOOK 2007 39 SAM STYLES – CONSERVATION CAD SAM STYLES has been an affiliate member of the IHBC for four years. He studied architectural conservation at Derby and works with Historic Royal Palaces as CAD manager at Hampton Court. I have always had interests in history, architecture IT and computer aided design (CAD). Working as CAD Manager with Historic Royal Palaces has enabled me to combine these into a very interesting, challenging and rewarding career while providing a fantastic environment to develop my interest and skills in photography. My career direction started towards buildings and architecture when I studied for a GNVQ in Construction and the Built Environment at college, and it was then that I started to develop my CAD skills. When the time came to fill in UCAS forms ready for university I decided to combine two of my favourite subjects, architecture and history, and successfully enrolled at the University of Derby to study architectural conservation. Out of the five universities I applied to, the University of Derby was the only one where the course actually ended up running. I gather this was due to the number of applicants, but even at Derby there were only four students in our year. The course was very rewarding and we worked closely with students on other courses such as architectural technology and construction management. Interestingly, the last time I really used a drawing board was in my first year at Derby. All my line drawing work since then has been done using various CAD packages. During our studies we were all encouraged to join the IHBC and take advantage of the information sent out by the institute and this is when I first became a member. In between studying I worked in the design office of the Isle of Man government’s Department of Transport and gained much of my CAD knowledge there, the bulk of the work being centred around civil engineering projects. My first job after university was with Latham Architects in Derby and I worked within their urban design team. Aside from urban survey and photography work, CAD was an essential part of the job and I found myself drafting more, learning more about drawing presentation and starting to help colleagues with various technical CAD issues. After two years with Latham Architects, an advertisement for a position at Hampton Court caught my attention. After all the usual interview stuff, I was offered the job and started just before the beginning of 2006 with the Surveyor of the Fabric’s Division of Historic Royal Palaces. AT HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES During my first few weeks with HRP there was plenty to take in, not only at Hampton Court but also at the other sites that the organisation manages, including the Tower of London, the Banqueting House, Kensington Palace, and Kew Palace. All CAD information for these five sites is held by myself. This includes a large quantity of photogrammetry, survey, project, maintenance, electrical, as built and general day-to-day drawing information. That all adds up to more than 7,000 individual records and, combined with the historic hard copy drawings, the collection holds around 25,000 drawing records. Browsing the archive, it is interesting to see how these buildings have been adapted to accommodate modern requirements such as computer network installations, fire protection systems and more recently access for the disabled. All CAD data on these Photogrammetric elevation of the Bloody Tower at the Tower of London layered with stone typology