黑洞社区

Studio E Architects鈥� project lead for the Grenfell Tower refurbishment said claims made about the insulation product used for the block鈥檚 refurbishment were as misleading as those in 2013鈥檚 horsemeat scandal 鈥� in which foods advertised as containing beef were found to contain horsemeat.

Neil Crawford, who is not a part III-qualified architect, took over day-to-day responsibility for co-ordinating his practice鈥檚 work on the high-rise block in 2014. He told Monday鈥檚 hearing of the inquiry into the fatal 2017 fire that the literature he had read on Celotex RS5000 led him to believe it was suitable for use on high-rise buildings.

Studio E did not specify the product鈥檚 use as part of the aluminium composite material cladding used for the tower鈥檚 refurbishment.

It had been substituted for a different Celotex product 鈥� FR5000 鈥� originally proposed by consultant Max Fordham. In fact, neither product was compliant with 黑洞社区 Regulations.

Quizzed about his understanding of the suitability of Celotex RS5000 for the tower, Crawford said product literature for the insulation 鈥� made by Saint-Gobain Construction Products 鈥� led him to believe it was safe for buildings of 18m in height or taller.

The introduction page of the product brochure, shown to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, said three times that Celotex RS5000 was suitable for use on high-rise buildings; that it had Class 0 fire performance; met criteria set out in BR135 and had been tested to BS8414.

Crawford said the 鈥渢he totality of what was written鈥� in the document made him understand that it 鈥渨as compliant鈥� for use as part of the Grenfell Tower refurbishment plans.

But he added: 鈥淭o be blunt about it [鈥�] they sought to deceive, based on the understanding that an average architect would have, with the way they鈥檝e worded this document.

鈥淚t鈥檚 deliberately misleading; it鈥檚 masquerading horsemeat as a beef lasagne, and people bought it.鈥�

Crawford, who worked for Foster + Partners before Studio E, told the hearing he had not been aware that Celotex鈥檚 claims related to a BR135 fire test and were not a general 鈥淥K鈥�.

He told the hearing that most architects would not have the 鈥渢echnical ability鈥� to analyse all of the ways that products could be compliant with 黑洞社区 Regulations.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a highly specialist and technical set of information; it also doesn鈥檛 help when it鈥檚 misrepresented,鈥� he said.

鈥淢y first port of call was to send it to the higher authority 鈥� the fire specialist 鈥� and ask them.鈥�

A major focus of the inquiry鈥檚 evidence-gathering in recent days has been the extent to which project fire specialist Exova was probing Studio E鈥檚 proposals to overclad the 24-storey Grenfell Tower, rather than more complex areas of the project 鈥� such as repurposing the block鈥檚 podium level to include new homes.

The first phase of the Grenfell Inquiry found that the use of a cladding system of which Celotex RS5000 was a component was a key enabler of the rapid spread of fire.

The inquiry continues.