Name: Ian Joyce
Role: Director & Mechanical Design Engineer
Years at Hannans: 35
How did you become a building services engineer?
I left school at 16 and couldn’t afford to go to university so I wanted a job where I could do day release at college. I was offered roles as an electrician, a factory manager, a printer and a draftsman at building services companies and I decided to take the draftsman’s job at Portland Mechanical Services. I went to college to study for my ONC and HNC in Building and Building Services and developed from there to become an assistant engineer and then a design engineer.
What’s your favourite thing about your job?
Creating buildings is very rewarding, it’s interesting to see buildings you have been involved in design and even after many years when you see them being demolished or redeveloped!
Out of all the projects you’ve been involved with have you got a favourite and why?
I do enjoy football stadia projects and having worked on the original Maine Road Stadium and then working on the City of Manchester Stadium was very interesting. The Coop HQ in Manchester was the most complex and challenging scheme I have worked on and the redevelopment of Riyadh Airport has been the largest so far at £5 bn.
How has the industry changed since you first started your career?
The technology of communications has massively changed how we work – we used to get letters from site and respond accordingly and now it’s almost instant. When we wrote specifications we had to get them typed and changes were very difficult – now its all digital. When I started you had to draw in pencil and move on to pens after months of practice before CAD and 3D.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
Jobs around the farm and watching football and other sport. I like DIY and building or developing property.
If you weren’t an engineer, what would you be?
I should have been in the City! :0)
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