Lying manufacturers, incompetent inspectors, muddled regulations, contemptuous landlords – the blame for the Grenfell Tower fire has been hurled in all directions, exposing a housing and construction industry that is rotten at every level. But, after seven years of waiting, yesterday’s inquiry report makes it very clear that there was one professional actor that bore the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the safety of what was designed and built: the architect.
In the excoriating 1,700-page document, the architecture practice Studio E, which led the tower’s 2015 refurbishment, is picked out for numerous “significant” failings, from its lack of knowledge of the building regulations, to its reliance on subcontractors, to fundamental errors in the design of the new cladding, which had “catastrophic consequences”. The combination of combustible aluminium composite panels, used with equally combustible foam insulation, and a lack of proper fire barriers in the facade, was the equivalent of wrapping the tower in firelighters, leading to the avoidable deaths of 72 people. Studio E, the report concludes, bears “a very significant degree of responsibility for the disaster” – some of the most damning language used for any party involved.
