#tbt It’s the 14th today. 2 months ago on this day, I was in London.
I used to call it the smoke. I don’t say that anymore.
It reminds me of Grenfell. 2 months ago on this day, Grenfell Tower residents gathered in London to say goodbye to their homes before the two-year process of dismantling what remains of the building begins.
Five architecture practices have been shortlisted by the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission to lead the memorial’s design which will bear the names of the 72 people, aged between six months and 82, who were killed.
The Grenfell inquiry, which concluded last year, found that “each and every one of the deaths that occurred in Grenfell Tower, on the 14 June 2017 was avoidable.”
I remember moving into a city centre apartment in Liverpool more than two decades ago and was excited at the prospect of all that it would bring.
Fast forward to ‘Grenfell’ in 2017 and all that changed for me and probably millions of others. I watched what unfolded in disbelief on TV…being given a set of keys to an apartment took on a whole new meaning. It was no longer just about the neighbours and the neighbourhood.
As client Project Four Building Safety Experts (P4) will share with you, the inquiry revealed significant failings in fire safety and accountability during the tower’s refurbishment, with unsafe cladding being a major factor in the fire’s spread. It pointed out inadequate oversight and competence among involved parties and a culture of cost-cutting that prioritized aesthetics over safety. The report recommended stricter material testing, improved regulatory oversight, and enhanced accountability within the construction and fire safety sectors.
Eight years on from the devastating tragedy, I was listening to a really informative P4 webinar recently hosted by Managing Director Max Meadows and featuring technical expert Colin Blatchford-Brown, Jon Vanstone, director of Tech Influence Ltd and Aman Sharma MBE and CEO of Totus Digital.
Serving as an industry update on the Building Safety Act, ‘who wants change’ and ‘who wants to change’, it was a candid insight into, amongst other topics, the current/future leadership and cultural environment of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR).
It’s clear from the conversation that the collective industries involved in delivering a building need solutions to further upskill their workforce, increase competence levels, and to address enforcement and non-compliance.
In spite of the collective construction industries’ many issues and the narrative of ‘industry does bad’- no surprise there, Aman believes they are in the middle of a new phase of regulatory reform.
Personally, I’d like to see the industry become savvier in delivering much more news about all the good practice in the construction industry.
There has been a huge shift and P4 are at the centre of it, helping clients deliver landmark high rise buildings under the strict terms of compliance regulation.
They are also deserve huge credit for being UK industry leaders in addressing the realities within the combined industries in relation to the Building Safety Act.
And the reality was hardly more stark than that fateful day in London.
