Building Safety’s Biggest Risk Isn’t Always Technical

When things go wrong in construction, our instinct is often to look for a technical failure.

Was the fire strategy wrong?

Was the structural design inadequate?

Was the product unsuitable?

Sometimes the answer is yes.

But increasingly, the more interesting question is whether the problem sat between disciplines rather than within one of them.

A recently published CROSS-UK Topic Paper, Mind the Gap, explores the relationship between structural engineering and fire engineering. At first glance, it appears to be a discussion about structural fire safety. In reality, it raises a much broader issue.

Who is responsible for the spaces between professions?

Most projects involve competent people. Structural engineers understand structures. Fire engineers understand fire. Architects understand buildings. Contractors understand construction.

The challenge is ensuring that assumptions are shared and understood.

A fire engineer may assume that structural performance in fire has been considered elsewhere. A structural engineer may assume that fire-related assumptions have already been addressed. Neither assumption is unreasonable. Problems arise when nobody realises that an important question remains unanswered.

The same theme appears throughout the post-Grenfell reform agenda.

The Fire Engineers Advisory Panel (FEAP) Authoritative Statement emphasises competence, defined responsibilities and understanding professional limitations. The proposed Single Construction Regulator seeks to address fragmentation across the construction sector. Both recognise that safe outcomes depend not only on competent individuals, but on how effectively those individuals work together.

As buildings become more complex, this issue becomes increasingly important.

The future of building safety will not be secured simply by creating more specialists. It will depend upon ensuring that specialists communicate effectively, understand where their responsibilities begin and end, and know when to involve others.

Many of the industry’s biggest challenges are no longer purely technical.

They are coordination challenges.

And that may be the most important gap of all.

Pyrology Insight offers commentary on emerging issues in fire safety, engineering and the built environment. These views are intended to encourage professional discussion and should not be regarded as project-specific advice.