The findings of the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire should serve as a stark warning to architects to ensure they fully understand their contractual responsibilities, writes expert witness Paul Hyett.

The attempts by so many so-named "core participants" to blame others presented an unedifying spectacle during the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. As far as architects are concerned, the position of project architect Studio E is of particular importance.
In this respect, the following denouements from the inquiry's executive summary to its Phase 2 report, published on 4 September, make for sober reading for our profession. Studio E, the panel found, "took a casual approach to contractual relations".
To our collective shame, the Grenfell Tower fire had, for too long, been a disaster in waiting "As architect Studio E was responsible for the design of the external wall and for the choice of the materials used in its construction," it added. Even though the client wanted to swap the zinc rainscreen panels initially specified by the architect for the cheaper, but ultimately deadly, aluminium composite material, "it was the responsibility of Studio E to determine whether the use of such material would enable the building to comply" with building regulations.
With respect to fire spread across external facades, it did not. "Studio E therefore bears a very significant degree of responsibility for the disaster," the report said.
Thes...