Forensic Architecture Need Your Help to Build a 3D Video of the Grenfell Fire
The research agency led by architect Eyal Weizman are mapping the tragic blaze that engulfed a London social housing block last year
The research agency led by architect Eyal Weizman are mapping the tragic blaze that engulfed a London social housing block last year
Research agency Forensic Architecture, based at Goldsmiths, University of London, has announced a new project investigating last year’s Grenfell Tower blaze in London. The group are calling on the public to contribute footage of the devastating fire, which will be used to build a model and timeline of the event, made available as an open resource.
The Grenfell Tower fire took place on the night of 14 June 2017, when a fridge exploded and sparked a fire engulfing the social housing block – 71 people lost their lives and over 70 were injured. The building's cladding panels are believed to have helped spread the fire. The incident is currently the subject of a public inquiry and criminal investigation. Forensic Architecture want to build a 3D video of the blaze. To do that, they will collect videos that were taken by Londoners of the fire, with the aim for ‘the public to explore and better understand the events of the night of the fire’. You can submit footage here.
‘We have potentially thousands of pieces of evidence on smartphones and cameras all around London’, Forensic Architecture researcher Bob Trafford told Wired. ‘So what we resolved was to use the kind of architectural, digital modelling we do to create a database, a library, a repository for all of those pieces of smartphone footage – all of those unique pieces of testimony.’
Forensic Architecture was founded in 2010 by the British-Israeli architect Eyal Weizman, and its investigations often straddle the fields of architecture, investigative journalism, law and beyond, calling attention to human rights abuses.
Forensic Architecture’s announcement follows news that Adjaye Associates and Cullinan Studio have been included in a selection of high-profile architecture firms working on the refurbishment of the Lancaster West Estate, of which Grenfell Tower was part. The site of the tower itself is believed to become a memorial to the victims – with Kensington and Chelsea Council announcing that its future would be determined by the community. Meanwhile Steve McQueen is at work on a film tribute to Grenfell; the artist filmed the remains of the tower at the end of last year from a helicopter.
