"If you work in the construction industry and you do not feel the weight of responsibility you have for keeping people safe, you are in the wrong job."
These powerful words were spoken by Grenfell Inquiry panel member, registered health and safety practitioner, and former Foster + Partners architect, Thouria Istephan, at the press conference where the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 2 Report was announced.
Her statement resonated deeply within the construction industry and the architectural profession, serving as a potent reminder that a culture of competence and compliance across all projects is critical.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report, spanning over 1,700 pages, has been described by many journalists as “excoriating”. It meticulously outlines findings that allocate responsibility for the tragedy across various sectors, from local and national government to material manufacturers and the construction industry, including the architects.
In response to the report, RIBA said: "The findings make clear that ensuring people’s safety requires systemic reform. This includes structural changes within the construction industry and a fundamental shift in culture and behaviours. This is a collaborative effort, and RIBA is committed to leading the charge for reform."
Recent years have seen significant changes, such as the launch of the Building Safety Act and updates to the Building Regulations (in England). While these reforms have been largely welcomed, the Grenfell tragedy underscores the urgent need to continue promoting a culture of competence and compliance. It’s not hyperbolic to say that lives depend on it.
What did RIBA say in its response to the Grenfell Report?
In its initial response, RIBA said it is taking its time to study and digest the report’s insights and recommendations, while continuing to update members along the way.
However, while this is happening – some of the recommendations will no doubt take time to be adopted and then integrated or incorporated into best practice - it’s important to acknowledge and reflect upon some of the key findings and recommendations in the report that specifically affect architects.
The Phase 2 Report said: “We conclude that the fire at Grenfell Tower was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them.”
It also said: “Safety of people in the built environment depends principally on a combination of three primary elements, good design, the choice of suitable materials, and sound methods of construction, each of which depends in turn on a large measure on a fourth: the skill, knowledge, and experience of those engaged in the construction industry. Unfortunately, as our investigations have shown, at the time of the Grenfell Tower fire there were serious deficiencies in all four of those areas.”
Additionally, the competence of the architect involved in the refurbishment of the Grenfell Tower fell “well below the standard to be expected of a reasonably competent architect”.
What were the recommendations from the report?
In its recommendations the Phase 2 Report acknowledges that both the Architects Registration Board and RIBA have taken steps since the tragedy to improve education and the training of architects. The report recommends that both bodies should review these changes to make sure they are sufficient in light of its findings. RIBA has committed to do so.
The report also recommends specific updates to the Building Regulations, including that “it be made a statutory requirement that an application for building control approval in relation to the construction or refurbishment of a higher-risk building (Gateway 2) be supported by a statement from a senior manager of the principal designer under the Building Safety Act 2022 that all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that on completion the building as designed will be as safe as is required by the Building Regulations.”
Other recommendations include:
- the government draws together under a single regulator all the functions relating to the construction industry.
- the definition of a higher-risk building be reviewed “urgently”.
- the government brings responsibility for the functions relating to fire safety currently exercised by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Home Office and the Department for Business and Trade into one department under a single Secretary of State.
- the Secretary of State appoints a Chief Construction Adviser with a sufficient budget and staff to provide advice on all matters affecting the construction industry.
- a revised version of Approved Document B to be published “as soon as possible”.
How competence and compliance play a role in building and fire safety
There’s no doubt that the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report concludes that professions, trades, government, and clients have a role to play in instigating meaningful change.
For architects, it’s important to consider individual competence and then practice responsibilities. The report provides a chance to reflect and review current processes, check, refresh, and update individual knowledge and recognise that there is already a well-defined route to first competence and then compliance.
RIBA's Practice Team’s suite of professional features that have been published over the past year provide guidance from industry experts, often detailing some of the ways architects can achieve competence and compliance, while other technical guidance also exists and is freely available.
For instance, in the report it says that the architect used for the refurbishment of the tower, “as lead consultant it was responsible for advising on the need for, and the scope of services to be provided by, consultants, specialists, sub-contractors and suppliers and for monitoring the work of other consultants.
As lead designer it was responsible for co-ordinating the design of all constructional elements, including work by consultants, specialists and suppliers and for determining materials, elements and components”.
The recent professional feature ‘Building Safety Act: what do architects need to know about the important differences between Principal Designer and Lead Designer roles?’ explains that where once the Lead Designer took on the co-ordination of design work, the Building Regulations Principal Designer is now responsible for monitoring and coordinating design work to ensure compliance with relevant requirements of Building Regulations.
Elsewhere, the report also makes reference to the architect under its contract with the contractor to provide a set of ‘as-built’ drawings at the end of the project. The drawings that were provided did not, the report concluded, accurately record the structure of the building. This reinforces the need to make sure that all design work by specialist contractors, however small, is coordinated by a Principal Designer and can become part of the information to be provided to the client at handover.
On this matter, RIBA’s Plan of Work 2020 says: “Project team members must now consider what Asset Information is required at handover; those receiving it are not always ready to use it effectively, and those delivering the information required to construct a building often do not have expertise in providing the information that will transform Asset Management or Facilities Management.
Information deliverables must therefore be defined at the outset, so that the relevant information can be incrementally developed as the project progresses. The information produced at the end of the design and construction process can provide significant benefits throughout the period the building is in use. However, in order to achieve the outcomes required, the delivery requirements for Asset Information need to be defined accurately and specifically.”
This is also reflected in the Building Regulations 2010, Regulation 38.
In relation to ‘determining materials’ and ‘coordinating design’, the authors of the report also accept Paul Hyett’s evidence that if an architect specifies a particular product to be used, they assume responsibility for making sure that its use is compatible with the functional requirements in the Building Regulations.
The report states that even though industry guidance “was available at the time, which contained warnings about the dangers associated with the use of certain kinds of rainscreen panels” this was not followed.
Once again, taking responsibility, taking care of specification, meeting Building Regulations requirements, and collaborating with others if need be to achieve these goals, is crucial.
What is available?
After the release of the Phase 2 Report, the spotlight now shines even brighter on the subjects of fire safety, competence and compliance. The key building blocks to these three elements are understanding the dutyholder roles and their subsequent duties.
Other resources RIBA provides in this area include:
- Building Regulations Principal Designer Course. This new webinar series (starting 24 September 2024) offers practitioners the essential skills to demonstrate competence in the Principal Designer role under CDM and Building Regulations. This series is suitable for those working on both small and large projects, as well as domestic and commercial schemes.
- RIBA Principal Designer Register. A list of individual RIBA Chartered Members that have demonstrated their knowledge, skills, experience and behaviours to support the dutyholder role under CDM and the new principal designer role under the amended Building Regulations.
- Health and Safety Test. The new, relaunched and free assessment will help members to ensure they are safe on site and able to demonstrate that they are competent to design buildings that are safe to construct, inhabit, use and maintain.
- RIBA Principal Designer Guide downloadable templates. This tranche of new resources (produced to be a companion to RIBA’s Principal Designer book) helps Principal Designers plan, manage and monitor tasks to be carried out under the new duties of the Building Regulations, in England. They include downloadable trackers, forms and letters.
Text by Paul Hirons and the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas
RIBA Core Curriculum topic: Legal, regulatory and statutory compliance.
As part of the flexible RIBA CPD programme, professional features count as microlearning. See further information on the updated RIBA CPD core curriculum and on fulfilling your CPD requirements as a RIBA Chartered Member.
