Put to the test

摘要

PRIOR TO the Grenfell disaster, another tragedy should have put the fire safety of buildings at the top of the agenda. Instead, the Lakanal House fire stayed under the radar, and issues it raised such as the absence of a fire risk assessment (FRA) and the confusion around who the responsible person was were never fully addressed. In the time between Lakanal in 2009 and Grenfell in 2017, the construction industry carried on as normal. A culture developed in which, in many cases, cost trumped safety and quality. Despite phenomenal build costs for projects, the construction industry's small profit margins led to highly competitive bidding that undercut competitors.This resulted in value engineering and inadequate or inappropriate products often being specified for buildings, This same level of carelessness extended to the use of desktop studies, where products and materials are not tested together in the way they will be used on a building.