In the wake of the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 report, I’ve found myself, like many in our industry, deeply reflecting on its findings. The report makes it painfully clear that the fire was the result of a widespread failure among the profession. While some might debate the extent of the architect’s culpability – Olly Wainwright, for instance, argued in The Guardian that Studio E bears ultimate responsibility – the perception has undeniably stuck. And, in truth, it should. Accountability is the bedrock of professionalism, and we must confront the uncomfortable truth that our profession has been complicit in a systemic failure. As the report reminds us, the profession has known this day of reckoning was coming.

Peter Apps’s Show Me The Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen – a harrowing, unflinching account of the disaster – was published three years ago, making clear that the Grenfell tragedy was a product of a web of professional buck-passing. Dame Judith Hackitt’s 2018 review further underscored the same point: Grenfell was a consequence of systemic failure. Yet the question that lingers for us, particularly in architectural education, is this: have we truly learned the lessons of Grenfell?

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