CLOSE AD ×

Forensic Architecture solicits home videos for Grenfell Tower fire investigation

Send 'Em In

Forensic Architecture solicits home videos for Grenfell Tower fire investigation

Forensic Architecture solicits home videos for Grenfell Tower fire investigation. (Natalie Oxford/Wikimedia Commons)

An architectural research agency devoted to the innovative investigations of catastrophes and violence has just launched an inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire, a June 2017 blaze that engulfed a West London social housing complex and killed 71 people and injured 70 more. Forensic Architecture put out a call on Twitter today, asking witnesses to send in videos of the conflagration to kick off a “a long-term and open-ended” inquiry into the incident. Experts contend that the fire was hastened by the facade’s cladding and highly flammable polystyrene insulation.

Forensic Architecture, directed by architect Eyal Weizman, is a collaboration between architects, computer specialists, journalists, filmmakers, scientists, and others, is based at Goldsmiths, University of London. Far from a mere video content farm, the group uses its resources to illuminate the inner workings of conflict situations, often taking amateur footage as a basis for their analysis. Its findings are deployed in courts and human rights reports, among other fora.

Forensic Architecture took to Twitter to encourage witnesses to send in their movies of the event:

Grenfell Tower, a 24-story Brutalist building in North Kensington, was designed by Clifford Wearden and Associates and completed in the 1970s. Forensic Architecture is compiling the videos, determining the orientation of the (usually) smartphone-wielding videographer, and projecting them onto a 3-D model of the building.

Would-be contributors can submit their footage, anonymously or not, here.

The news comes on the heels of an announcement that London’s Adjaye Associates, along with five other firms, have been selected to share ideas for the future of Lancaster West Estate, the municipal housing complex that hosted Grenfell Tower. If an architect is selected and everything goes according to plan, work on the project is slated to begin in 2019.

CLOSE AD ×