黑洞社区

Cladding specialist Harley Facades鈥� 鈥減roject designer鈥� for the Grenfell Tower refurbishment has told the probe into 2017鈥檚 fire disaster that he was merely a freelance drafting service charged with turning architect Studio E鈥檚 drawings into fabrication versions.

Kevin Lamb told the Grenfell Tower Inquiry that he had agreed to do around 41 days of work on the project for Harley because it did not have the in-house capacity to translate Studio E鈥檚 work into plans that were ready for construction.

Lamb was a former boss of Harley鈥檚 then design manager Daniel Anketell-Jones and had worked on Harley and Grenfell main contractor Rydon鈥檚 Chalcots Estate refurbishment in Camden a few years earlier.

Lamb had a 30-year career in curtain wall and windows work and some experience of cladding. He worked as a technical architecture adviser at Sch眉co in the 1990s before setting up his own Bespoke Design Services firm in 2000. He is not a qualified architect.

He told the inquiry into the west London tower-block fire, which claimed 72 lives, that his role was to act as a drafting service to transfer Studio E鈥檚 drawings into fabrication drawings so that the external cladding system proposed for Grenfell could be manufactured and installed.

Asked by inquiry barrister Kate Grange QC whether he knew Harley was going to present him as the 鈥減roject designer鈥� for Grenfell when he agreed to work for the business, Lamb replied that he did not.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want to read too much into that term,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a general consensus that once you put the word 鈥榙esigner鈥� in there there鈥檚 an element of responsibility, far more than maybe there should be.

鈥淚 was never told I was lead designer. I was told I was project designer. The first I knew of that was when they [Harley] had some business cards printed up with my name on.鈥�

Lamb said the job title he was given had not stopped him from 鈥� being quite clear鈥� that he was working through Harley鈥檚 technical team.

On Tuesday, the inquiry heard that Harley had been keen to reassure Rydon that it had a design team working on Grenfell at a time when it lacked in-house capacity to deal with the project.

Anketell-Jones said he was presented to Rydon as 鈥渓ead designer鈥� for the project as a 鈥渟top-gap鈥� measure before Lamb was brought in.

Lamb said on Wednesday it had been his understanding that Studio E was responsible for checking that the new cladding system proposed for Grenfell Tower complied with 黑洞社区 Regulations and other applicable standards.

Barrister Grange asked Lamb if anyone at Harley had ever told him that the firm would not be checking the Grenfell cladding system for compliance but that Studio E would.

Lamb replied: 鈥淣o, that was an assumption that I made, based on 30 years of never doing it a different way.鈥�

He said it would have become 鈥渜uite obvious鈥� if Studio E did not have that role and that at no stage in his involvement with the project did he get the idea the practice was not checking for statutory compliance.

Lamb was asked whether he had any knowledge of the contractual relationship 鈥� in fact a letter of intent from main contractor Rydon 鈥� that defined Harley鈥檚 role on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment. He said he did not.

Lamb told the inquiry that materials for the project were always issued to him as 鈥渁 fait accompli: this is what we鈥檙e doing鈥�.

Grange asked Lamb about his familiarity with relevant parts of the 黑洞社区 Regulations and professional guidance. He said he had checked Approved Document B and Celotex product information as part of his work on Grenfell.

He said he did not know there was an issue about the use of polyisocyanurate (or PIR) insulation boards on buildings above 18m in height 鈥� such as the Kingspan Thermapitch TP10 used for infill panels between windows at Grenfell.

Lamb also said he did not know that the Class O fire-performance description primarily concerned lining materials.

Additionally, he said he was not aware of the CWCT Standard for Systemised 黑洞社区 Envelopes that required cavity barriers around windows as part of rainscreen-cladding systems but had a 鈥渉unch鈥� about it.

Lamb said that although he had noticed the absence of such cavity barriers in Studio E鈥檚 drawings, he believed the architect had created a design that followed a different route to statutory compliance.

鈥淭he architect had the use of a fire consultant and they must have considered this cavity barrier design,鈥� Lamb said.

鈥淏etween them, they must have considered this design to be compliant.

鈥淭he last thing the architect wants is to say 鈥極h, I forgot to put cavity barriers around the windows鈥�, and then the subcontractor would be asking the client for more money because they鈥檝e not provided these items.鈥�

Wednesday鈥檚 session heard Lamb had agreed to invoice Harley for 拢10,572.80, exclusive of VAT, in return for his proposed work on the Grenfell Tower project.

The inquiry continues.