BEAL & CO Update: Digesting the Grenfell Report – Impact on Product Manufacturers

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry published the highly anticipated Phase 2 Report into the fire at Grenfell Tower in September. At its centre lies the significant human tragedy, as the fire in June 2017 claimed 72 lives, and injuring and impacting many others.

AIA UK sponsor Beale & Co’s latest instalment of the “Digesting the Grenfell Report” series, looks at the Phase 2 of the inquiry, specifically regarding product manufacturers and the insulation products installed on the tower.

Click the button below for the article by Sheena Sood and Joanna Lewis:

GRENFELL TOWER INQUIRY: PHASE 2 REPORT – Summary of main findings

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry published the highly anticipated Phase 2 Report into the fire at Grenfell Tower last week. At its centre lies the significant human tragedy, as the fire in June 2017 claimed 72 lives, and injuring and impacting many others.

The voluminous Phase 2 Report examines detailed evidence on the circumstances surrounding the fire. In this summary article by AIA UK sponsor Beale & Co, the first in our “Digesting the Grenfell Report” series over the coming weeks, Sheena Sood, Joanna Lewis and Michael Salau summarise some of the Panel’s main conclusions and recommendations and contemplate the potential implications of these findings for the wider construction industry and the ambition to build a safer future.

Written by Sheena Sood, Joanna Lewis and Michael Salau

Vote in the 2024 USA Elections

As you know, 2024 is an election year in the USA.  Living in the UK does not affect your right to vote but may take a bit of planning.  If you are already registered to vote in your home state, you need to contact your local election board and ask for an absentee ballot or go to www.fvap.gov to obtain the standard form.  This must be done for each year that you plan to vote.  If you aren’t registered to vote, or you’re not sure, go to www.votefromabroad.org to register and request your ballot for 2024.  As we saw from the last presidential election, every vote counts.  It is important to exercise your right to vote!

Beale & Co News: Courts Enforce an Overriding Duty of Care Clause

An overriding duty of care clause (limiting duties to reasonable skill and care) has in recent years become more common and more desirable to negotiate into contracts involving design. In a key recent decision in which Beale & Company Solicitors LLP acted for AECOM, the successful party, the court upheld the effect and importance of an overriding duty of care clause. 

Written by Andrew Croft, Felicity Hird and Rhia Gould

AIA UK/RIBA 2023 Keynote Lecture - Thom Mayne

The AIA UK/RIBA Keynote Lecture featuring Thom Mayne of Morphosis was held on the 30th of January, having been rescheduled from last autumn.  The event was held at the RIBA headquarters in London to a full house plus an online audience.  Introductions were given by Dr Valerie Vaughan-Dick MBE, RIBA CEO; Muyiwa Oki, RIBA President, Emily Grandstaff-Rice, AIA 2023 National President (via video), and by Gregory Fonseca, AIA UK 2023 President.

Thom Mayne’s presentation was a spellbinding overview of his practice and thinking, using projects as talking points rather than exploring individual buildings in depth.  The talk was loosely configured around the themes of Early, Middle, and Current.  Early projects include several California projects such as the Crawford Residence (1990) and the Diamond Ranch High School (2001).  There was a heavy similarity to the theoretical work of Archigram, and it was no accident that Sir Peter Cook, one of the Archigram founders, was in the audience as Thom Mayne’s guest.

The Middle range of projects then demonstrated a geographically broad range of significant projects.  These included the Eugene Federal Courthouse (2006), Perot Museum (2012), Casablanca Tower (2019), Shenzhen Tower (2020) and many more.  There was an admirable design consistency between the early smaller projects and the much larger commercial projects.  Thom Mayne asserted that despite the seemingly complex geometries, the project budgets on their buildings were in a standard range.

The final portion of his presentation included several unbuilt competition projects such as Performing Art Centers for Rensselaer University and for Taipei, a Beijing Cultural Park, and Unicorn Island in China.

A lively Q&A session followed the presentation, after which attendees carried on discussions over drinks served in the Jarvis Hall foyer.

Written by Lester Korzilius, FAIA, RIBA

Beale & Co News: Market Trends in the Construction Industry in 2023 and how to Tackle Them in 2024

As the first two months of 2024 draws to a close, we feel it is an opportune time to reflect on some of the trends we saw in the construction industry in 2023 and hopefully look with some positivity at what is to come in 2024.

2023 was, in lots of ways, a difficult year for the construction industry. It was plagued by inflation, increased cost of materials, skilled labour shortages, a cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing effects of the Russo-Ukrainian war. It was not all doom and gloom though. We saw a real increase in the focus on climate change and decarbonisation in construction projects globally and in the use of digital technologies to improve efficiencies. We also saw the introduction of secondary legislation under the Building Safety Act which reflected a hugely important step towards a safer built environment.

This article will reflect on these important trends.

Market trends in the construction industry in 2023 and how to tackle them in 2024 | Beale & Co (beale-law.com)

Written by Andrew Croft & Ellie Eastwood