Abstract
Abstract. The tablet-based software docu-tools digitize the documentation of buildings, simplifies construction and facility management and the data analysis in building and construction-history research. As a plan-based software, ‘pins’ can be set to record data (images, audio, text etc.), each data point containing a time and date stamp. Once a pin is set and information recorded, it can never be deleted from the system, creating clear contentious-free documentation. Reports to any/all data recorded can immediately be generated through various templates in order to share, document, analyze and archive the information gathered. The software both digitizes building condition assessment, as well as simplifies the fully documented management and solving of problems and monitoring of a building. Used both in the construction industry and for documenting and analyzing historic buildings, docu-tools is a versatile and flexible tool that has become integral to my work as a building historian working on the conservation and curating of the historic built environment in Europe. I used the software at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, UK, during a one-year research project into the construction history of the building. The details of how docu-tools was used during this project will be discussed in this paper.
Highlights
Thorough, precise building documentation is a key aspect of preserving and maintaining buildings, monuments and sites, and for coordinating communication between the people tasked with caring and protecting historic building fabric, tradespeople, users and researchers
Anybody involved with buildings - be it in the heritage industry, the construction trade or facility management is aware of the monetary value of thorough building documentation
Having a digital tool which at the same time can be used to create detailed, transparent documentation that can be quickly transformed into usable reports, providing contentiousfree documentation is of great value to academics and the wider heritage and building industry alike
Summary
Precise building documentation is a key aspect of preserving and maintaining buildings, monuments and sites, and for coordinating communication between the people tasked with caring and protecting historic building fabric, tradespeople, users and researchers. Systematic, detailed documentation is something which often moves to the bottom of one’s priorities, but it is exactly this material which becomes of vital significance when problems arise, disasters strike, and proper care and maintenance has to be demonstrated Such documentation has an obvious value to historians, researchers, curators and conservators who can draw conclusions on how something might have looked, been used, or how it was originally created. I draw particular attention to its significance for settling legal issues here, which, as will be seen, sets it apart from other programmes currently available to assist with building documentation Whilst this was not an aspect of the software that was too important for my purposes at Boughton House, it may be of significance for others
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