The sustainability challenge of product information quality in the design and construction of facades: lessons from the Grenfell Tower fire

Abstract

PurposeThis paper explores the quality and flow of facade product information and the capabilities for avoiding the risk of facade fires early in the design process.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study using the process tracing method is conducted in two stages. First, a thematic analysis of reports and literature identified two categories for the problems that caused fast fire spread across the Grenfell Tower facade. This enabled classifying the identified problems into four stages of a facade life cycle: product design and manufacturing, procurement, facade design and construction. Second, the capabilities for avoiding the problems were explored by conducting in-depth interviews with 18 experts in nine countries, analyzing design processes and designers' expertise and examining the usability of three digital interfaces in providing required information for designing fire-safe facades.FindingsThe results show fundamental flaws in the quality of facade product information and usability of digital interfaces concerning fire safety. These flaws, fragmented design processes and overreliance on other specialists increase the risk of design defects that cause fast fire spread across facades.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications for standardization of building product information, digitalization in industrialized construction and facade design management.Originality/valueThis research adds to the body of knowledge on sustainability in the built environment. It is the first study to highlight the fundamental problem of facade product information, which requires urgent attention in the rapid transition toward digital and industrialized construction.

Fire Safety and Prevention Issues in Design of Tall Buildings

“…Grenfell Tower was one of the fire incidents which started inside the building but turned into a facade fire with deadly results as the facade material and fault detail design caused the fast spread of the fire to the higher floors. Bahrami et al [12] highlighted the fact that architects and engineers heavily rely on DfMA guides (design for manufacturing and assembly) and the results of simulations to estimate the efficiency of the fire safety design. The latter requires the software or cloud libraries to bring the correct information about the material features so that the final estimations can display real results.…”

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) in architectural design meetings: from a case study to knowledge-to-action framework

“…This knowledge-based design can be eased by incorporating integrated project delivery (IPD) and building information modeling (BIM) (Alfieri et al, 2020;Langston and Zhang, 2021). Since DfMA requires know-how and feedback from downstream stakeholders, such as manufacturers, suppliers and contractors, the early collaboration among stakeholders and multidisciplinary team establishment in IPD can prevent tacit construction knowledge loss and rework (Bahrami and Zeinali, 2022;Ibrahim and Nissen, 2007). In addition, BIM, with its capabilities of handling and superimposing complex building information into one source, can help gather relevant information, analyze and visualize it for developing and finalizing a built-environmental design, which increases constructability (Laovisutthichai et al, 2022).…”