黑洞社区

Residents of Accordia in Cambridge say they are facing financial ruin after their block was declared unsafe because it incorporates timber.

One resident said rules introduced after the Grenfell fire in an attempt to protect residents of dangerous blocks of flats had 鈥渟piralled into ludicrosity鈥�.

The Glass 黑洞社区 is part of the Stirling Prize-winning Accordia development in Cambridge which was designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, with other buildings by Maccreanor Lavington and Alison Brooks Architects

The Glass 黑洞社区, part of the Stirling Prize-winning development designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, is said to have failed a facade safety survey because its timber balconies are supported by a framework of oak beams.

The firm that carried out what is understood to be an EWS1 survey reportedly says these will need to be replaced because of new rules which state that external walls should not be capable of spreading fire.

Architects have previously .

Reconstruction work would leave the owners of the nine flats facing huge bills, according to a report in the .

One owner, Julia Kenyon, told the paper she was facing bankruptcy despite the fire risk being 鈥渕inuscule鈥� because of the building鈥檚 small size and wide staircase.

The Glass 黑洞社区 is 15m tall, making it ineligible for a grant from the government鈥檚 拢4.5bn 黑洞社区 Safety Fund which is only for blocks over 18m. Residents in lower buildings are expected to take out a loan, secured against the property, with repayments capped at 拢50 a month.

When , former RIBA president and fire safety expert Jane Duncan dubbed the loan scheme 鈥渟econd rate鈥� and criticised the narrow scope of government support for people living in dangerous buildings.

鈥淚 am frankly shocked by the government鈥檚 continued underestimation of the scale of our building safety crisis,鈥� she said at the time.

According to the Sunday Times, about 700,000 people are trapped in dangerous flats and three million are in homes they cannot sell unless they pay for 鈥渄efects鈥� to be made safe.

Questions are now being asked about what should be classed as a defect and whether homeowners are being ripped off by private firms.

Labour will raise the matter in Parliament on Tuesday and call for a government agency to be set up to tackle the issue. Shadow housing secretary Lucy Powell said: 鈥淏ecause there is no real risk measure in the system, the amount of remediation works that people are being told need to be done to get a mortgage or insurance are just ever growing.鈥�

Andrew Mellor, a partner at PRP, which advises MHCLG on building remediation and who has examined numerous at-risk buildings, told 黑洞社区鈥檚 sister title 黑洞社区 Design: 鈥淲e are seeing that EWS1 forms are driving some unnecessary remediation as a result of a lack of understanding of risk from surveyors, commercial risk mitigation by the surveying companies and instructions from PI insurers.

鈥淚t is hoped that the emerging BS9980 will help to align external wall surveying processes and outcomes, and reduce the amount of remediation required.鈥�

He stressed he did not know the details of this case but said the oak frame was likely to char not burn in the event of a fire, although the balconies themselves might perform differently.

He added: 鈥淚t looks as though the balcony oak structure is external to the building so it would seem the balconies could be remediated without much effect on the building. Of course, the architectural impact is great as it likely means a new steel structure and metal decking. This will change the appearance of the building and the original design intent.鈥�

Architects have long been critical of the scope of government support for affected homeowners. They have also attacked ministers for including the structural engineered timber such as CLT in its .

Alex de Rijke of Stirling Prize-winners dRMM, which designed the UK鈥檚 first CLT public building in 2004 鈥� Kingsdale School in south-east London 鈥� accused them of an uninformed and counter-productive knee-jerk reaction.

And the Architects鈥� Climate Action Network (ACAN) predicted during a consultation last year that the decision would 鈥済reatly increase the perceived risk of building with timber structures despite a significant amount of research around the safety of engineered timber systems such as glue-laminated timber and cross-laminated timber鈥�.

Accordia won the Stirling Prize in 2008. FCBS declined to comment.

Accordia developer Countryside Properties, management company Encore Estates and MHCLG have all been contacted.