Resibuild Event: Reducing Fire Risk in Residential Construction – 6 Feb 2020

Free London Event – The Shard | Resibuild Summit

Join industry influencers and peers for a day of networking and education on how fires in residential buildings can be reduced. We have been working with a number of highly respected leaders in the industry to improve fire safety.

Summary of Roundtables

The Highrise Resibuild event at The Shard on the 6^th February was a hive of activity with two morning roundtables, 7 CPDs and a keynote speech. The roundtables in the morning involved a gathering of industry influencers, one table discussed the challenge of reducing fire risk while the other debated speed vs quality and the value of MMC. For the remainder of the day we focussed primarily on fire risk in high rise residential construction with a range of CPD providers covering all aspects of high-rise construction.

At the fire roundtable attendees discussed recent residential fires and the standards followed by the industry. One example raised was the difference between the construction and automobile industries. Car manufacturers must meet the minimum of the MOT standards, but this is the baseline not the standard they aim for. One attendee raised the point of the lack of standardisation in buildings arguing that while the car industry is driven by producing a high volume each building is based on an individual scenario. Hackitt identified this as a major need for change in the industry and that the focus should be on the outlook rather than box-ticking.

At the speed vs quality roundtable there was a lively debate about the benefits and concerns surrounding adoption of MMC. One point raised was that in modular construction there is a strong need to ensure all the components come together seamlessly. To achieve this, high standards of quality control are needed with greater integration of suppliers.

A further point raised was the risk of a skills shortage and the impact this will have on on-site labour. A pitfall of on-site construction is the disparity between what is specified and what is carried out on site. A key point raised was the difference in offsite manufacture is the level of oversight and quality control that ensures the specification is fully carried out.

At both roundtables the consensus was that in each industry challenge an important part of the solution is collaboration and cooperation between professionals throughout the supply chain.

Join a future roundtable.

“The event was very well organised and the invited guests had a high level of technical understanding of the issue being discussed. This was a very informative session.” 

– Head of Technical, Ecoworld

Improving Our Industry

We’re passionate about improving our industry and believe we can all play our part to mitigate the risks and improve future buildings. Through events like this and our involvement on the BSI Committee, we hope to shape the industries standards of tomorrow in a practical way which is beneficial to everyone.

CPD Presentations: (Event Over)

Book into the CPD presentations you wish to attend.