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This book explores the relationship between architecture, government and fire. It posits that, through the question of fire-safety standardisation, building design comes to be both a problem for, and a tool of, government.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Gathering around fire, 2. Context: Studying standardisation, 3. Edinburgh: The shape of the British National Anthem, 4. Lagos: The flight of a muzzle spark, 5. Tokyo: Spectres of Edo castle, 6. London: Engineering uncertainty, 7. Grenfell: Trial by fire, 8. Conclusion: Fire-space, Index
About the author
Liam Ross is an architect and senior lecturer in Architectural Design at the University of Edinburgh. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and the Architectural Association, and completed his doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Mark Dorrian. Through his research he responds ‘to a call to study boring things’, paying attention to taken-for-granted aspects of design practice that nonetheless have pervasive effects. Over the past six years his work has focussed on fire-safety standards; he has sought to foreground the contingencies that underpin these universalising codes, and to illustrate their often surprising side-effects. That work has been published in Arch +, arq, Architectural Theory Review, Candide, Gta Papers and Volume, was exhibited at the British Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale, and features in the edited collections Industries of Architecture and Neoliberalism on the Ground. At present he is working on a study of fire metaphors, considering them part of the conceptual infrastructure of architectural theory.
Summary
This book explores the relationship between architecture, government and fire. It posits that, through the question of fire-safety standardisation, building design comes to be both a problem for, and a tool of, government.
