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Sam Webb (architect)
Samuel Webb (5 August 1937 – 24 September 2022) was a British architect who was famous for his work on the structural and fire safety of Tower Blocks following his investigation into the Ronan Point tower block. Career Webb graduated from the Northern Polytechnic in 1962. He worked as an architect at Camden Council and was subsequently a lecturer at Kent Institute of Art & Design from 1975 to 1996 and then established his own practice. Webb was a nationally elected member of both the Royal Institute of British Architects Council and the Architectural Association Council. Webb sat on the All Party Parliamentary Fire & Rescue Group. Webb was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to architecture. Projects Webb undertook significant research into the construction of the Ronan Point tower block and other " Large Panel System" buildings following the collapse of the flats after a gas explosion in 1968. After long negot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tower Blocks In Great Britain
Tower blocks are high-rise buildings for residential use. These blocks began to be built in Great Britain after the Second World War. The first residential tower block, "The Lawn", was constructed in Harlow, Essex, in 1951; it is now a Grade II listed building. In many cases, tower blocks were seen as a "quick-fix" to cure problems caused by the existence of crumbling and unsanitary 19th-century dwellings or to replace buildings destroyed by German aerial bombing. It was argued that towers surrounded by public open space could provide for the same population density as the terraced housing and small private gardens they replaced, offering larger rooms and improved views, whilst being cheaper to build. Initially, tower blocks were welcomed, and their excellent views made them popular living places. Later, as the buildings themselves deteriorated, they grew a reputation for being undesirable low-cost housing, and many tower blocks had rising crime levels, increasing their unpopulari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronan Point
Ronan Point was a 22-storey tower block in Canning Town in Newham, East London, that partly collapsed on 16 May 1968, only two months after it had opened. A gas explosion blew out some load-bearing walls, causing the collapse of one entire corner of the building; four people died and 17 were injured. The spectacular nature of the failure (caused by both poor design and poor construction) led to a loss of public confidence in high-rise residential buildings, and major changes in British building regulations resulted. Construction Ronan Point, named after Deputy Mayor Harry Ronan (a former Chairman of the Housing Committee of the London Borough of Newham), was part of the wave of tower blocks built in the 1960s as cheap, affordable prefabricated housing for inhabitants of West Ham and other areas of London. The tower was built by Taylor Woodrow Anglian using a technique known as large panel system building, which involves casting large concrete prefabricated sections off-site an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Polytechnic
The University of North London (UNL) was a university in London, England, formed from the Polytechnic of North London (PNL) in 1992 when that institution was granted university status. PNL, in turn, had been formed by the amalgamation of the Northern Polytechnic and North-Western Polytechnic in 1971. In 1996, the university celebrated its centenary, dating from the year of the Northern Polytechnic's founding. UNL existed until 2002, when it merged with London Guildhall University to form London Metropolitan University. Its former premises now form the University's north campus, on Holloway Road and Highbury Grove, London Borough of Islington, Islington. Structure Under the board of governors, the university was arranged into four faculties each led by a dean and pro vice-chancellor:— ;Faculty of Environmental and Social Studies: *School of Law, Governance and Information Management (formerly schools of Law and of Information and Communications Studies) *School of Social Scien ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
