Building failure

NOTES: Ronan Point, a 23-storey prefabricated council housing block, was built by Taylor Woodrow Anglian, using a technique known as Large Panel System building or LPS. This system relied on gravity holding everything together. On 15 May 1968 a natural gas explosion blew out the pre-cast concrete panels which formed the side of the building. The entire end of the block collapsed like a house of cards. Ronan Point, together with the eight other blocks on the estate, was demolished in 1986 and replaced with two-storey houses with gardens.

SOURCE: Architects' Journal, vol. 147, 1968 May 22, p. 1126 NOTES: Ronan Point, a 23-storey prefabricated council housing block, was built by Taylor Woodrow Anglian, using a technique known as Large Panel System building or LPS. This system relied on gravity holding everything together. On 15 May 1968 a natural gas explosion blew out the pre-cast concrete panels which formed the side of the building. The entire end of the block collapsed like a house of cards. Ronan Point, together with the eight other blocks on the estate, was demolished in 1986 and replaced with two-storey houses with gardens.