BYTNAR - TALKS
EPISODE: 040 - GRENFELL REPORT - LESSONS LEARNED
This episode is for people who want to know more about the Grenfell Report.
You should like this episode if you ask yourself questions like:
What are the key lessons learned from the Grenfell Tower tragedy report?
What is the Building Safety Act and how does it address lessons from the Grenfell Tower fire?
How did systemic failures contribute to the Grenfell Tower fire disaster?
What were the issues with the materials used in Grenfell Tower that led to the tragedy?
How did the fire safety regulations fail during the Grenfell Tower fire?
What role did manufacturers, professionals, and regulatory bodies play in the Grenfell Tower fire?
What are the main recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry to prevent future disasters?
This is Bytnar Talks the Engineer Takes on Construction Episode 40. Hi I'm Piotr Bytnar each day I help my clients plan and design building projects through Bytnar limited a Consulting Chartered Structural Engineers practice my biggest passion and the cornerstone on which I've built my business is finding clever solutions for construction projects I am a chartered structural engineer and a budding software developer so you can rest assured that I will strive to talk about the best practices and the use of new technologies in the industry and if you're embarking on a construction project or are involved in planning designing and building the world around us you'll find this podcast useful. This is Bytnar talks the engineer t on construction episode 40 hi I'm P Bitner each day I help my clients plan and design building projects through Bitner limited a Consulting Charter Structural Engineers practice my biggest passion and the Cornerstone on which I've built my business is finding clever solutions for construction projects I am a chartered structural engineer and a buing software developer so you can rest assured that I will strive to talk about the best practices and the use of new technologies in the industry and if you're embarking on a construction project or are involved in planning designing and building the world around us you'll find this podcast useful Grand file report lessons learned hi guys and welcome to Bitner talks your favorite podcast on all matters of architecture engineering and construction it is Thursday the 19th of December 2024 and I'm here back with you with the 40th episode of this podcast I am now back in the room where it all started a year ago when I decided when I decided this is the time to get out there and start talking about matters of architecture engineering and constructions the matters that are closest to my heart this will be the last episode of this year year 2024 and I am glad I could have delivered all 40 episodes for you covering some heavy subjects with content lasting for more than a day today I will talk about something important I will conclude the year with the lessons learned from the Grandfield tragedy in this episode I will do the gist list of matters concluded in the report no BS no special commentary well almost simple hard truth Ser cold and straight up so brace yourself Dorothy as this train is leing to the truth land so without further Ado let's get and dive straight into it so the Lessons Learned as they appear in their published report overview containing chapter 2 executive summary and chapter 113 recommendations lesson number one the path leading to the disaster was a culmination of Decades of neglect in regards to the use of combustible materials in external walls neglect by the government and the institution that let that lead and control the industry and which were well aware of the risk yet chose not to act to regulate regulate the use the lesson came from the fire of NOS Le height in 1991 the results of the environment transport Select Committee in 19 99 results of large scale testing of aluminium composite panels in 2001 number of reports of class zero designation being inappropriate reports of fires internationally using such materials reports about the improper interpretations of the approved document B and continuation of the use of wrong materials the department dealing with building regulations and oversight of approved document B was poorly run by incompetent people the bre forly the fire research station has been privatized and the scope of their advice minimized or unduly ciled the government bodies were not keen on doing work to improve dismissing or defending against recommendations like the recommendations of of the all party parliamentary group on fire safety all coroners involved in 2009's lanal house fire the drive was for D regulation with little regard to fire safety lesson number two the building research establishment showed the loosening of the standards through the 1990s leading to inconsistent delivery of their assessments and Industry conforming commercially driven Behavior leading to their privatization in 1997 lesson number three systemic failure driven by dishonest conduct of rain screen clouding and insulation manufacturers and resellers the British Board of agreement BBA local Authority building control labc failed to scrutinize their claims and ukas failed to scrutinize them in turn Lesson Four manufacturers not KN ly concealed the information these as named in the report are arconic architectural products producers of aluminium composite material meaning plastic form filled sandwich with aluminium skins the plastic foam used was rain about 55p alate the fires in Dubai and Regulatory changes in other countries the manufacturers chose to push its use use on the less regulated markets and such is the British Market the next in line of dishonest manufacturers is celotex that misled the market with claims of suitability of their RS 5000 insulation obfuscating the fact that the test is that the test it underwent was a system test to BS 8414 where the panels had a fire resistant magnesium oxide both plac in critical position positions rigged to satisfy the test criteria also kingspan with their K15 installation were the next Market snake oil Traders Traders manipulating the standard issuing institutions and concealing the fact propagating misinformation the cavity barrier manufacturer side R has not been found to act dishonestly but their product were used in situations to which they were not tested to and their marketing was found disconcerning lesson number five professional bodies conduct starting with the British Board of agreement whose conduct was found not entirely independent not rigorous or RoR rigorously applied they sought to bring and maintain customers rather than to discharge their duties local Authority building control was found to be incompetent and negligent in the processes of material certification the national house building Council was found to serve their own agenda instead of serving the public interest as did the building research establishment the last but not least is the United Kingdom accreditation service known as ukas that also show lacking of professionalism and showing complacent attitude to discharging their duties which combined with little enforcement capability kept the institution at the level of yet another glorified paper pusher lesson number six the tenant management organization TMO was found lacking the governance and customer service staff attitudes and a poor repair service was identified as constant themes of the investigation the organization has been failing miserably throughout the years lesson number seven the tenant management organization and the Royal borrow of Kensington and Chelsea were responsible for the fire safety of the building and failed in their Duty rbkc failed to control TMO which in turn was incompetent in their duties and shown utter disregard to property and human safety two individuals were named TMO CEO Mr Robert black and self-proclaimed fire assessor Mr Carl Stokes shame on you people lesson number eight the industry appears to consider meeting the requirement B3 and B4 as sufficient for compartmentalization enhance delayed or withhold evacuation of the building lesson number nine the building requirements are performance-based yet the prescriptive reading of the approved document leads to the perception of the approved document as the industry gospel which it is not lesson number 10 improper procedures raised to the bottom blamy lack of research and development of companies relying solely on the existing relationships without scrutiny is the way for a disaster companies named in the report are constru consultant AR arellia the architect for the project Studio e main contractor Ryden clading subcontractor Harley metal sheathing arconic facade manufacturer C architectural facades fire safety assessor xovia and building control for the project was rbkc lessons number 11 push forward attitude of all involved the industry recognizes the necessity for an in iterative approach to reach best outcomes yet racing down with the pricing in current climate means it is seldom a case as was here all involved show the prevalent in the industry minimum effort push forward as long as the process moved forward there were no stops included like the one with the fire strategy done by by exova that remained in its draft form lesson number 12 lack of side visits led to lack of understanding of the building form lesson number 13 lack of design competency by the main contractor led to the wrong selection and use of materials lesson number 14 the design of building in this case looked more like an exercise of Simply providing the minimum to satisfy regulatory stops my personal observation is that such approach is prevailing in aec Industry ever since my first contact with it so supposedly for the last 40 Years also since the last change of the building regulation regime lesson number 15 commercial clients tend not to scrutinize the work they Commission if they do it it's usually to a degree of budgetary values and no more that is partially due to their own inherent incompetence lesson number 16 continuous development training and benchmarking of the workforce is somehow laxed including safety critical operation like that of the London fire brigade lesson number 17 there appears to be no critical think competent leadership on the local and governmental levels that would drive safe operation of the country local authorities or individual buildings failings on the aspects of response communication strategy and coordinated action has been noted by the report lesson number 18 the industry is over reliant on the certification of material without analyzing the actual behav Behavior of the materials in the given scenario approaching design decisions holistically lessons number 19 over Reliance on the experience and blind following of the company procedures and standards or lack thereof as opposed to individual research training and professional development leads to wrong or no decisions on projects lessons number 20 the safe building relies on the good design choice of suitable materials and sound methods of construction implemented by people with appropriate skills knowledge and experience all of which were somehow missing in this case lesson number 21 the regulatory arrangements are too complicated and fragmented fragmentation has been ident identified as leading to inefficiencies and obstacles of effective regulations I would go as far as to say that it's not only the problem with legislation and regulator Arrangements it is also a very big issue in the delivery of projects now let's get to some of the recommendations given it is generally recommended to unify control over construction and safe development under one body with appropriate practicing and competent Advisory Board we should also review the meaning of the higher risk building update the approved document B and invite fresh Minds to the process of continuous review including Academia and practicing professionals fire safety strategy should be made by qual qualified people at the Gateway 2 and three we should recognize the inefficiencies of the current testing regimes of clading materials or ventilated systems and devise new approaches it is recommended that a construction regulator certifies products to be used in construction and that such certificates to be accompanied by the setup and test results of the experiments the report calls for regulations of the status of the fire engineer and the creation of appropriate institution to implement it it is also said that Architects should be better trained contractors of higher risk buildings licensed and building control approvers guarded from the conflict of interest preferably by a national body designers should have a free access to design data preferably driven by the national body the operation and building regulation should be subject to Industry recommendation with an Open Access by the public to verify if the regulator act on this fire risk assesses should be made accredited these are the main points for the industry more recommendations were directed at local and National level to enhance firefighting efforts and resilience and response of local governments so this is it folks Unapologetic straight up conclusions lesson learned and recommendations of grenfell report we are now all looking forward to the end of the 2024 and the beginning of the new 2025 one thing is for certain in the new year I through and with my business Bitner limited am looking forward to continue on the path of the Improvement of myself and the operation of my business and with it the wider industry I hope to work with you the coming year and to be useful with the delivery of the new content I hope you enjoyed this episode if you have any questions reach out to me on LinkedIn or send me an email I'm more than happy to help you out in betna we deal with planning designing and managing of your projects and we are always glad to facilitate a free initial consultation to steer you in the right direction visit www.b now.co and reach out to us whether your question is if we can help you with the project or what should I do we will be able to give you a piece of no obligatory advice at Bitner we help our clients design and execute their dream homes or Investments if your building is falling apart we can also help investigate the reason behind it and to provide you with an appropriate strategy design and specifications for the repair thank you again for listening please voice up your opinions I'm waiting for you on LinkedIn and I want to hear from you see you next week Bytnar Designs The World Around You, Toodloo!
Piotr Bytnar BEng (Hons) MSc CEng MIStructE
Chartered Structural Engineer who deals with the Architecture of buildings. His Master's Studies led him to an in-depth understanding of risk and contract arrangements in construction as well as specialist knowledge in soil mechanics.
He and his team help homeowners and property developers to design and deliver construction projects reducing waste in time and the cost. He believes that the construction project is an iterative process that can be well managed and it is best managed if all the aspects of the project definition and management are dealt with in-house or coordinated by one organisation. His team works to all stages of RIBA and ISTRUCTE stages of work and enables contractors to deliver projects on-site providing risk evaluations, methodologies for execution of works and temporary works designs.
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