Archinect - News

Final report into Grenfell Tower fire says architect 'bears a very significant degree of responsibility for the disaster'

2024-09-04T11:46:00-04:00

Over seven years after fire engulfed London’s Grenfell Tower killing 72 people, a public inquiry into the disaster has released its final report. The Grenfell Inquiry’s report has uncovered a chain of failures across government and the private sector, including an architecture firm, beginning a full 25 years before the 2017 fire. The report ultimately found that all 72 deaths were avoidable.

The 1,700-page report, which brings to a close the six-year public inquiry, said that cladding products were “by far the largest contributor” to the fire and that the product manufacturers had engaged in “systemic dishonesty” using “deliberate and sustained strategies” to make their products safe.

U.S. manufacturer Arconic, whose cladding panels were used on the tower’s exterior, were found to have “deliberately concealed” safety risks. While fire tests Arconic commissioned showed the cladding performed poorly, such information was not given to a key British certification company.

An additional ...

East London blaze reignites cladding fears as Grenfell investigation grinds on

2024-08-26T18:34:00-04:00

More than 80 people had to be evacuated after a major fire broke out in east London early Monday, fire officials said. The blaze brought back painful memories of the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people in the city in 2017. The Dagenham building had “a number of fire safety issues” officials said. Notably, the mixed-use building had “noncompliant cladding,” according to a 2023 application for construction work.

Responding to the Dagenham fire, the Times reported Grenfell United as saying, "This highlights the painfully slow progress of remediation across the country, and a lack of urgency for building safety as a whole." In a truly painful precursor, the yearslong criminal inquiry into the deadly 2017 fire is expected to release its final report in less than two weeks. The Times cited a separate government source in claiming there are currently 3,280 buildings over three stories in the UK thought to still have unsafe cladding.

Criminal charges stemming from the Grenfell incident won't be brought against defendants until at least late 2026, according to the most recent update. Another Monday fire was also widely covered in the nearby New Providence Wharf Estate, though no injuries were reported.

Just under a quarter of all UK high-rises with 'dangerous' cladding have been remediated, new report finds

2024-06-21T14:10:00-04:00

Just under one in four high-rise UK residential structures in need of cladding remediation have had the necessary labor performed despite a previous increase in efforts in the wake of the ongoing inquiry into the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, according to a new report from the government office Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ (DLUHC).

Construction News has the latest on the concerning lack of progress backtracking throughout the country's building and construction industry, where now just 1,088 of the 4,374 identified have completed their necessary remediations. (Another 2,066 buildings have begun the process overall). That includes just 40% of the 1,974 all social housing buildings in the country. The news comes a month following our last update into the investigation, which likely won't begin criminal proceedings against any of the defendants until 2027.

As was reported elsewhere, the inquiry’s final report is expected to be published on September 4th of this yea...

Grenfell fire inquiry won't produce criminal charges until at least 2026, investigators say

2024-05-24T12:30:00-04:00

No criminal charges will be filed against defendants in the ongoing Grenfell Tower fire investigation until at least late 2026, according to the latest from the BBC and other UK outlets. London's Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service, which is responsible for administering criminal punishments, cited the "scale and complexity" of the investigation as the reason for the delay. A number of subcontractors and contractors, including the cladding manufacturer Arconic, are the subjects of the criminal inquiry.

Kingspan, the insulation makers for the tower, have settled out of court for £150 million ($191 million USD). The BBC says: "The delay announced today means it is likely no defendants will appear in court until 2027, if there are prosecutions. The public inquiry into the fire is expected to publish its final report in the summer or autumn of this year."

'Grenfell: in the words of survivors' play comes to New York this spring

2024-03-21T13:36:00-04:00

A new dramatization of the deadly 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy is being staged next month at the St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, after traveling from the National Theatre in London, where it premiered last summer.

Playwright Gillian Slovo’s interviews with survivors are the basis for the play’s verbatim dialog. Directors Phyllida Lloyd and Anthony Simpson-Pike will reprise their roles for the four-week run, beginning an opening night performance on April 13th.

A July review of the first adaptation from The Guardian called it “a masterpiece of forensic fury.” The New York Times’ Alex Marshall wrote about the play's proselytizing effects, framing it as a democratic and justice-driven “call for change.”

The aftermath of the blaze that claimed the lives of 72 people has indeed led to several proactive reforms, including a recent mandate concerning cladding remediation and the appointment of a new building safety regulator. Potential criminal charges stemming from the London Me...

UK announces massive cladding remediation mandate in wake of Grenfell inquiry

2023-01-31T11:45:00-05:00

England's housing developers have been given an ultimatum - commit to repairing unsafe buildings or be banned from operating in the market. Developers now have six weeks to sign a government contract to fix their unsafe buildings from the past 30 years. According to the government's new plan, homeowners living in buildings whose construction poses a potential fire risk will be reimbursed, and building companies who installed the unsafe cladding must pay to replace it with a safer material.

Speaking to the press on Sunday, UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove admitted “faulty” guidance was to blame for the Grenfell Tower tragedy, stating his opinion that the building industry had gone underregulated for years. Cladding manufacturers like Celotex and Kingspan were not included in the mandate. Gove said the government will be committing a total of £5 billion ($6.15 billion) towards the effort.

Finger-pointing closes Phase II of the Grenfell Tower fire inquiry as possible criminal charges loom

2022-11-09T15:09:00-05:00

The close of the 300-day-long inquiry into the devastating 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London saw attorneys for the victims pinning the “primary responsibility” on the building's designer, Studio E Architects, adding that a “rogue's gallery” comprised of Arconic Architectural Products and the engineering concern Exova were also to blame, along with the “rolled-back state” and a coterie of Grenfell subcontractors.

“The full extent of the disaster was caused by a complex combination of corporate greed with complete disregard for safety, professional incompetence, oversight and organisational failings, and facilitated by an insufficiently robust regime,” Barrister Stephanie Barwise said during her final statement.

A representative for Kingspan, makers of the faulty K15 insulation used in 5% of the facade, added their view that “responsibility also rests with those responsible for the design, construction, and approval of the refurbishment.”

Previously on Archinect: New findings state ...

Cladding fire breaks out in 35-story Dubai apartment tower

2022-11-07T17:00:00-05:00

A massive fire was reported in the early hours of Monday morning at the 8 Boulevard Walk Tower in Downtown Dubai. Located near the Burj Khalifa, the 35-storey tower was ablaze and was extinguished just before 4am. The building seems to have extensive fire damage on the façade spanning through all floors.

The cause of the fire is unknown but appears to have been affected by the structure’s cladding, which residents told The Daily Mail was supposed to be replaced following a New Year’s Eve blaze in 2015 that caused significant damage to the nearby Address Downtown Dubai hotel.

1/ #Dubai

The Emaar skyscraper of the largest developer in Dubai partially burned down

The fire started early this morning near the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. pic.twitter.com/frFKZI1zu9
— David Kime (@CyberRealms1) November 7, 2022

Similar incidents prior to this have raised concerns for the safety of high-rises in Dubai completed before 2012 during a torrent of construction in the capital. According to some reports, at least 500 buildings in the UAE are susceptible owing to the combustibility of their cladding, which contains the same thermoplastic material likely to have fueled the deadly 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London. No injuries have been reported.

This is now the second large fire...

Grenfell Tower set for demolition due to safety concerns

2021-09-07T18:42:00-04:00

Owners of London's Grenfell Tower are expected to announce later this month that the tower will be demolished due to safety concerns. This decision comes more than four years following the fire that claimed the lives of 72 people. UK housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, has been notified that the building poses a risk to the local community, which includes the Kensington Aldridge Academy, a secondary school near the site.

This decision comes after the release of a report on Grenfell Tower by government-hired engineering consultancy Atkins. The structural engineers behind the report “unambiguously and unanimously” advised that the tower be “carefully taken down.” Government officials are expected to formally announce the fate of the tower block later this month.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), which has assumed ownership of the tower since 2018, issued a letter to former residents with the news. They’ve assured the families that the building will not...

Grenfell Tower inquiry: foul play alleged in fire tests of foam cladding panels

2020-11-17T12:44:00-05:00

Executives who sold combustible insulation for use on Grenfell Tower perpetrated a “fraud on the market” by rigging a fire test and making “misleading” claims about it, a public inquiry has heard. Celotex, a subsidiary of the French construction materials company Saint-Gobain, behaved in a “completely unethical” way, admitted Jonathan Roper, a former assistant product manager.

Citing Grenfell, UK moves to limit mass timber construction

2020-05-26T11:57:00-04:00

Despite the fact that mass timber testing has consistently shown that the material performs better than required in fire and structural situations, the government of the United Kingdom is considering imposing new height limitations for mass timber structures in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy.

The BBC reports that UK government officials are considering new regulations that would cap the height of these structures at 11 meters, or roughly three to four stories. Application of the mass timber technologies would still be allowed "in floors," BBC reports, but not along exterior walls. In most other countries that allow mass timber construction, structures are allowed to rise six stories or more.

The proposal has been initiated, according to reports, in an effort to limit the potential for the spread of fire along exterior cladding as occurred in the Grenfell fire when an insulation layer situated within the concrete tower's composite aluminum cladding caught fire, allowing flame...

Grenfell Report Blames Firefighters

2019-11-01T19:48:00-04:00

The London fire brigade’s readiness for the Grenfell Tower fire was “gravely inadequate” and fewer people would have died if it had been better prepared, a long-awaited public inquiry report into the disaster that killed 72 people has concluded ... [despite] “compelling evidence that the external walls of the building failed to comply with requirements” of building regulations governing fire safety.

The Fire Brigades Union published a damning report in September that accuses former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's deregulation — followed, and reportedly amplified, by Tony Blair — of having gutted building and fire safety regulations. At the same time, firefighters are blamed for a "lack of preparation" that cost 72 lives.

Meanwhile, families of the victims are suing the manufacturers of the buildings cladding and insulation.

New Bartlett focus views “safety as a fundamental starting point, not as a late fix”

2019-10-29T12:01:00-04:00

A new specialization in fire safety design is being launched by the University College London (UCL) and The Bartlett in the wake of the disasterous Grenfell tower fire that took place in 2017.

Bartlett director Bob Sheil told The Architect’s Journal, “What we are really proposing here is a paradigm shift and [to] think about safety in the early stages of design propositions as a positive contributor to good design.”

The course, to be offered to both part- and full-time students, is set to explore the design of fire escape routes, fire separation packages, and fire suppression systems with a keen focus on tricky fire design-challenged typologies like tall residential structures and large assembly spaces.

Sheil added, “One of the things we have come to realise is there is a huge amount of research and development and education that can go into understanding building design through safety as a fundamental starting point, not as a late fix.”

Fire safety engineering and design special...

UK to introduce national building safety regulator in wake of Grenfell tragedy

2019-10-25T14:30:00-04:00

Legislation that would force developers and landlords to comply with rigorous new safety standards will be announced in the Queen’s speech on Monday with the aim of preventing a repeat of the Grenfell Tower disaster. Ministers say that the creation of a new buildings safety regulator will be the biggest reform of the sector in 40 years, imposing far stronger obligations on those responsible for the safety of high-rise buildings throughout design, construction and occupation.

The creation of a new national building safety regulator comes as the UK government prepares to release a report investigating the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire that killed 79 people.

The report is set to be released on October 30th.

Grenfell Tower fire: lawsuit launched against US building material suppliers

2019-06-21T14:51:00-04:00

American attorneys famous for claims in construction disasters have launched a landmark wrongful death lawsuit in Philadelphia against three US companies on behalf of 69 of the 72 people killed in the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, and 177 who were injured in the tragedy.

"They are targeting Arconic, Inc., which they claim supplied the Reynobond Polyethylene Cladding (PE) panels on Grenfell; Celotex Corporation, which they claim supplied the insulation used in the cladding system; and Whirlpool Corporation, which manufactured the fridge-freezer thought to be linked to the start of the fire," reports Global Construction Review.

Grenfell Tower inquiry: expert architectural witness fired because he was not a registered architect

2018-06-25T13:28:00-04:00

The public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster has sacked its expert architectural witness after it emerged he was not a registered architect. John Priestley, who was appointed on Wednesday to produce a report into the architectural design of the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, was sacked on Friday. [...] According to the inquiry, before he was instructed, Priestley told officials he was a UK registered and chartered architect.

New findings state Grenfell Tower insulation never passed fire safety test

2018-05-23T14:58:00-04:00

The insulation that burned out of control on Grenfell Tower had never passed the required safety test and should never have been on the building, a BBC investigation has discovered. Panorama understands the manufacturer, Celotex, used extra fire retardant in the product that qualified for the safety certificate. A more flammable version was then sold for public use, the programme believes. Celotex said it is co-operating with the police investigation and inquiry.

Last June the Grenfell Tower fire in London killed 72 people prompting ongoing investigations. It has been found that the RS5000 insulation used in the building's refurbishment gives off toxic fumes containing cyanide when burned. Almost all who perished in the fire were killed by smoke.

The manufacturer Celotex has been accused of misleading marketing, selling their insulation as compatible with other cladding panels and tower block refurbishment—both of which are false. Safety was neglected as the cladding panels and insulation in Grenfell Tower were never tested together. This could result in corporate manslaughter for Celotex.

The same toxic insulation is found to have been used on hundreds of other buildings across England.

Grenfell-style cladding causes value of upscale London apartments to drop by 90%

2018-04-16T16:21:00-04:00

A homeowner in a housing complex in London with Grenfell-type cladding has been told the value of her £475,000 home has collapsed and is now just £50,000. Galliard Homes, the developer of the 11-block complex in New Capital Quay in south-east London, is facing a £30m-£40m bill to replace the cladding and is locked in a legal dispute over who should pay.

The New Capital Quay development—home to about 2,000 residents—is believed to be the largest private development to have flammable cladding after the 2017 Grenfell fire tragedy that killed 71 people, The Guardian reports. The apartments are now considered unsellable.

Forensic Architecture pieces together the Grenfell Tower fire

2018-03-26T14:33:00-04:00

Over the last few months, the team at Forensic Architecture, housed at London’s Goldsmiths University in Lewisham, has been working to piece together data and footage from the event using a mixture of video and imagery from Youtube, Periscope and other forms of social media, as well as footage from Sky News, which is a partner on the project.

In June of 2017 the Grenfell Tower fire killed 71 in the London public housing block. Criminal investigations are still ongoing with no one yet held accountable. Forensic Architecture has taken on the case in order to piece together how the fire spread within minutes throughout the building.

By creating a public database from various sources of video footage, the agency's approach is an open-ended investigation where anyone with information can participate. Forensic Architecture is creating a 12 hour video sequence mapping footage onto a model of the building. Initially named "Grenfell Media Archive", the team hopes to eventually be able to share it externally as an interactive archive.

Through their new methods of data visualization, Forensic Architecture hopes to fully uncover how this incident happened.

Plans for a Grenfell Tower memorial confirmed by UK government

2018-03-02T14:57:00-05:00

[...] according to a U.K. government press release published Thursday, the site will become a formal memorial to the fire’s victims. The announcement of the plan—which could also see the nearby Latimer Road Tube station renamed to Grenfell—strikes the right note so far, making it clear that residents of the West London housing project will get the deciding say on any kind of memorial that happens on the tower’s site.

While the memorial signals a commitment to remembrance and honoring the victims, the article points out the shortcomings in the official response, the display of incompetence, the ongoing hardship for Grenfell Tower's former residents, and the still looming fire hazard of countless other residential buildings clad in similar material.

"The common assumption is that the decision-making process on the future of the site will lead towards agreement on a fitting memorial to remember those who lost their lives," reads the press statement the British government issued on March 1. "Kensington and Chelsea council will ensure that work on the future of the site is taken forward alongside work on the improvements to the Lancaster West estate, so that the area becomes a place where the tragedy can be remembered and the local community thrives."

Four out of five Grenfell Tower families still need permanent housing, according to local support group

2017-12-07T14:50:00-05:00

Out of the 208 households that needed rehousing after the fire, 118 will still be in emergency accommodation or with friends over the holiday period, including 29 families with children. A further 48 households have accepted permanent housing offers, but have not yet moved in and are currently still in temporary homes, [support group] Grenfell United said. Days after the fire the prime minister, Theresa May, promised that families would be rehoused within three weeks.

In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, progress has been painfully slow to permanently rehouse all the families who lived in the west London tower block. “Only 42 families have moved into new permanent homes, leaving 166 households still in temporary housing,” The Guardian reports. According to Elizabeth Campbell, the leader of the Kensington and Chelsea council, residents of Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk will have new homes by June 2018.

RIBA submits evidence and recommendations to the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety

2017-10-19T13:57:00-04:00

Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the British government put out a call for evidence for the independent review of building regulations and fire safety. Led by Dame Judith Hackitt, the review will make recommendations to ensure there is a sufficiently robust regulatory system for the future, examining building and fire safety regulations and related compliance and enforcement with a focus on multi-occupancy high rise residential buildings.

Today, the RIBA has submitted its response and recommendations to the call. “The RIBA welcomes Dame Judith Hackett’s review but we believe it must be more comprehensive, addressing the details of Building Regulations guidance as well as the broader regulatory system. The Review should cover all building types and construction methods not just those relating to high-rise, multiple occupancy residential buildings. In addition to submitting evidence, the RIBA has also proposed a number of significant recommendations to the Review, to enhance the ...

Police consider manslaughter charges in the Grenfell Tower case

2017-09-22T04:00:00-04:00

The criminal investigation into the Grenfell Tower disaster may consider individual as well as corporate manslaughter charges. At a briefing on Tuesday morning, officers said individual charges were a possibility as well as charges relating to fraud, misconduct, health and safety breaches, and breaches of fire safety regulations.

Police consider both individual and corporate manslaughter charges in the Grenfell Tower disaster; the fire of a 24-story social housing tower in London. The tower's cladding was highly flammable and no sprinklers had been installed.

Scaffolding around Grenfell Tower may be used as screen for art projections

2017-08-22T12:17:00-04:00

As workers prepare to remove the charred debris from Grenfell Tower, the specially erected scaffolding and netting around the building that will block the view of their work from the public may be used as a kind of projection screen for local children's painting and art. At least, that's what site and remediation manager Michael Lockwood has proposed, in part because the schoolchildren are apparently unhappy staring at the burned out husk of the previously-flammably-clad tower.

Residents take in the burned tower. Image: Catholic Church England via Flickr

According to The Art Newspaper, "Lockwood recently met primary school pupils in the area who said that looking up at the tower is upsetting. 'I asked them if they would like to come up with paintings of what they would like to see on the building,' he said. The works would be projected on to the scaffolding screen."

Fire safety reform: Australian state government to audit, replace and ban flammable cladding

2017-08-02T13:46:00-04:00

The state government will audit the use and ban the supply of the potentially flammable building cladding that led to London's deadly Grenfell Tower inferno, in what it styles as Australia's toughest fire safety reforms. [...] Better Regulation Minister Matt Kean said the government had undertaken an audit sample of about 180,000 residential and commercial towers constructed in NSW since the 1980s. About 1000 of those buildings "may have [unsafe] cladding", the Minister said.

"The [New South Wales] state government said it would introduce reform that would identify buildings encased in unsafe cladding," the Sydney Morning Herald reports, "require them to be inspected and force building owners to foot the bill for replacements and ban the sale and supply of unsafe material."

82 buildings fail fire safety test in the wake of Grenfell Tower tragedy

2017-08-01T04:00:00-04:00

Eighty-two buildings have failed a new fire safety test set up in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, ministers say. The test examines the safety of building cladding and insulation in combination. It comes as an independent review of building regulations and fire safety has also been announced by the government. It will look at current building regulations and fire safety, focusing on high-rise residential buildings.

"The new fire safety test is the first of a wave of more comprehensive assessments, which come after previous tests were carried out on hundreds of cladding samples in recent months - many of these failed standards for flammability," the BBC reports and outlines key examination goals of the upcoming independent review.

At least 80 people lost their lives and over 70 were injured in a tragic fire on June 14 that rapidly spread through the building and engulfed the majority of the 24-story Grenfell Tower block of public housing flats in West London.

34 buildings in London evacuated after failing fire tests in light of Grenfell Tower tragedy

2017-06-26T13:29:00-04:00

Britain said 34 high-rise apartment blocks had failed fire safety checks carried out after the deadly Grenfell Tower blaze, including several in north London where residents were forced to evacuate amid chaotic scenes.

Two weeks ago, a low-income residential tower in London tragically caught fire resulting in the death of at least 79 occupants. The incident has sparked a national (and even international) conversation about the safety standards set by London officials for low-income residents as it has been discovered that certain precautions like sprinkler systems were deemed unnecessary in the interest of cutting costs. In addition, a cladding on the exterior of the building has been largely determined as the reason the fire lead to such deadly results. The same material is said to clad tens of thousands of buildings in more than 87 tower blocks across the United Kingdom.

In an attempt to avoid similar failures in the future, British officials have inspected over 600 high-rise buildings across England. From this, the Department for Communities has concluded that 34 apartment blocks across the country fail to meet safety standards. The aluminum cladding that covered Grenfell has begun to be remove...

Grenfell Tower Fire: Corbyn calls for empty flats in the adjacent area to be requisitioned as evidence grows that negligence responsible for the blaze

2017-06-16T13:47:00-04:00

Reports indicate that a cladding, banned in the United States, added to the Grenfell Tower was largely responsible for the intensity of the fire that claimed at least 30 lives earlier this week in North Kensington. It was just £2 cheaper per square meter than an alternative, fire resistant version. Disturbingly, the cladding was added to appease wealthy residents nearby, states Emma Dent Coad, the Kensington MP, and to ‘regenerate’ the area through development.

Anger has risen as the fire increasingly looks less like a tragic accident and more and more like the result of outdated regulations and funding cuts. For example, sprinkler systems are not mandatory in public housing blocks—raising fears that some 4,000 similar blocks are at risk of similar tragedies. It is important to note that black and minority ethnic people are disproportionately housed in such flats.

When a fire erupted in 2009 in another tower block, analysis made clear inadequate measures were being taken to address fi...

London tower block fire kills twelve; previous warnings about "very poor fire safety standards" may have gotten ignored

2017-06-14T14:00:00-04:00

Twelve people have died in a west London tower block fire and the number of deaths are expected to rise, police have said. [...] Grenfell Tower underwent a two-year £10m refurbishment as part of a wider transformation of the estate, that was completed last year. [...] Before and during the refurbishment, the local Grenfell Action Group claimed that the block constituted a fire risk and residents warned that site access for emergency vehicles was "severely restricted".

While it's still too early to determine the cause of the fire, the BBC reports that "before and during the refurbishment, the local Grenfell Action Group claimed that the block constituted a fire risk and residents warned that site access for emergency vehicles was "severely restricted"."

Latest updates on the disastrous blaze can be found in The Guardian's live feed here.

UPDATE, June 14, 2017, 2:06 PM EST:

Latest reports raise the fear that the tower may be seriously in danger of collapsing with structural cracks appearing in the corners. Firefighters have been pulled out of the tower.

Image via @mrgeorgeclarke on Instagram.

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