Introduction
Wolstenholme Limited Architects is a family-run RIBA certified practice in South Oxfordshire near the Chilterns. Their work includes internal remodelling, home expansions, loft and garage conversions, listed building renovations, single and multi-house developments, as well as small-scale commercial projects, and they have a portfolio of over 650 projects. The firm primarily serves Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and north Berkshire.
Rupert Wolstenholme, Co-founder of Wolstenholme Limited
Challenges
''So we use the mapping service for three parts of our business feasibility studies. So we can look at the massing of the site where there's enough car parking, amenity space, all of this without having to do a measured survey, which obviously saves a lot of time and money at this sort of early stage of a project. Then for our design phase of a project, we use the mapping software to look at the impact our development may have on neighboring properties. So for instance, sight lines and then for the planning applications, we use it for getting the location maps and for us doing the proposed site plans as well.''
How I use MapServe®
''The the workflow that we go through, all of our employees have their own log in from MapServe® but it's all linked to one account so we can see all of the maps that everybody has got. We use the MasterMap® product generally. It's very easy to obviously select the area that you need and then download it in our case into Autocad and where we can manipulate it for our needs and make any updates that we require.''
Why MapServe®
''We use maps serve and we have done for a few years now. 1:19 We came from many years using another company and we just felt that MapServe®'s interface was so easy to use. We work on around 100 projects a year. We need something that's quite quick to download maps and get the information that we need. We submit all of our applications through the Planning Portal and the mapping service that they have there just doesn't meet our needs. You can't edit the maps there, which you pretty much have to do on all OS maps.''