The Epistemology of Construction Product Certification
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sci
Abstract
This project focuses on two research questions:
How does product certification function as an epistemic practice, one that creates, curates and transmits safety-critical knowledge within the construction industry?
How can product certification, as an epistemic practice, be improved to enhance the safety and quality of the built environment?
Product certification, which attests to a products fitness for use, is central to the construction industry in the UK and globally. Robust frameworks for certifying construction products are essential to safety and quality, as they ensure products comply with Building Regulations and meet standards for structural integrity, fire resistance, air and water tightness, corrosion resistance, tensile, compressive or adhesive strength, thermal insulation, etc. They also facilitate trade, allowing products manufactured in one country to be used safely and legally in another. There is, however, a significant lacuna in the industry, as it has technical expertise but has been shown to lack understanding of certification. Specifically, a failure to appreciate certification as an epistemic practice, one that creates, curates, and transmits knowledge, has led to widespread misunderstanding on the part of architects, engineers, contractors, and regulators of what certification tells us about the material properties and proper use of construction products.
The consequences of the inadequate understanding of certification have sometimes been tragic, most saliently in the case of the Grenfell fire, in which a residential high-rise was retrofitted with combustible cladding, leading to the deaths of 72 people. The Hackitt Review (Building a Safer Future, 2018), an independent report commission by the UK, found that "Current methods for testing, certification and marketing of construction products and systems are not clear", that "Products are marketed with specification data presented in ways which can easily be misinterpreted", and that 'the product testing, labelling and marketing regime is opaque and insufficient'. The report concluded "there is a need for a radical rethink of the whole system and how it works. It is essential that this industry now works to implement a truly robust and assured approach to building the increasingly complex structures in which people live."
The research project supports this rethinking by developing an epistemology of certification, giving close attention to testing practice and the relevance of tests to as-built reality, the relevance and epistemic character of Regulations and formal Standards, and the way in which the idealisation of science can undermine the insights of engineers and practitioners whose work is to anticipate the natural world. The research will conceive of certificates as bodies of knowledge and examine normative and descriptive questions about such knowledge, including (1) how it is derived from evidence, assured, represented and curated, (2) what its content and limitations are, and (3) how it functions as testimony (transmitting knowledge from certifying organisations to users of the certificate, such as architects, engineers and contractors). Overall, it addresses a serious practical problem - how can regulators, certifiers and end users improve product certification to make buildings safer and more robust - by developing a novel philosophy framework for understanding certification as an epistemic practice.
How does product certification function as an epistemic practice, one that creates, curates and transmits safety-critical knowledge within the construction industry?
How can product certification, as an epistemic practice, be improved to enhance the safety and quality of the built environment?
Product certification, which attests to a products fitness for use, is central to the construction industry in the UK and globally. Robust frameworks for certifying construction products are essential to safety and quality, as they ensure products comply with Building Regulations and meet standards for structural integrity, fire resistance, air and water tightness, corrosion resistance, tensile, compressive or adhesive strength, thermal insulation, etc. They also facilitate trade, allowing products manufactured in one country to be used safely and legally in another. There is, however, a significant lacuna in the industry, as it has technical expertise but has been shown to lack understanding of certification. Specifically, a failure to appreciate certification as an epistemic practice, one that creates, curates, and transmits knowledge, has led to widespread misunderstanding on the part of architects, engineers, contractors, and regulators of what certification tells us about the material properties and proper use of construction products.
The consequences of the inadequate understanding of certification have sometimes been tragic, most saliently in the case of the Grenfell fire, in which a residential high-rise was retrofitted with combustible cladding, leading to the deaths of 72 people. The Hackitt Review (Building a Safer Future, 2018), an independent report commission by the UK, found that "Current methods for testing, certification and marketing of construction products and systems are not clear", that "Products are marketed with specification data presented in ways which can easily be misinterpreted", and that 'the product testing, labelling and marketing regime is opaque and insufficient'. The report concluded "there is a need for a radical rethink of the whole system and how it works. It is essential that this industry now works to implement a truly robust and assured approach to building the increasingly complex structures in which people live."
The research project supports this rethinking by developing an epistemology of certification, giving close attention to testing practice and the relevance of tests to as-built reality, the relevance and epistemic character of Regulations and formal Standards, and the way in which the idealisation of science can undermine the insights of engineers and practitioners whose work is to anticipate the natural world. The research will conceive of certificates as bodies of knowledge and examine normative and descriptive questions about such knowledge, including (1) how it is derived from evidence, assured, represented and curated, (2) what its content and limitations are, and (3) how it functions as testimony (transmitting knowledge from certifying organisations to users of the certificate, such as architects, engineers and contractors). Overall, it addresses a serious practical problem - how can regulators, certifiers and end users improve product certification to make buildings safer and more robust - by developing a novel philosophy framework for understanding certification as an epistemic practice.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Matthew Wragg (Student) |