We need to talk about timber: fire safety design in tall buildings

Author: Angus Law and Rory Hadden

Date published

3 March 2020

Price

Standard: £10 + VAT
Members/Subscribers: Free

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We need to talk about timber: fire safety design in tall buildings

Tag
Author
Angus Law and Rory Hadden
Date published
3 March 2020
Price

Standard: £10 + VAT
Members/Subscribers: Free

The Structural Engineer
Author

Angus Law and Rory Hadden

Citation

The Structural Engineer, Volume 98, Issue 3, 2020, Page(s) 6

Date published

3 March 2020

Author

Angus Law and Rory Hadden

Citation

The Structural Engineer, Volume 98, Issue 3, 2020, Page(s) 6

Price

Standard: £10 + VAT
Members/Subscribers: Free

The construction industry is characterised by ignorance, indifference, and lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities.

There is a culture across the sector which can be described as a ‘race to the bottom’. There is insufficient focus on delivering the best-quality building possible. This, in May 2018, is how Dame Judith Hackitt described the UK construction industry – with her specific focus on buildings. Her interim report, Building a Safer Future, was intended as ‘a call to action for an entire industry’ – recognising that ‘true and lasting change will require a universal shift in culture'.

The UK government’s immediate response to Hackitt was to ban combustible materials for use in the external walls of residential buildings with a height greater than 18m3. The government’s impact study in support of the ‘ban’ explicitly identified that the engineered timber industry would see significantly reduced growth due to post-Grenfell regulatory changes. Has the use of a material that has been increasingly of interest to the tall building industry suddenly been ‘scuppered’? Why was mass timber not included within the government’s list of exemptions? It would surely have been easy to draft some text to exempt timber from the ban.

Additional information

Format:
PDF
Pages:
6
Publisher:
The Institution of Structural Engineers

Tags

Timber Safety Fire Feature Issue 3

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