In fulfilling the wishes of a homeless person to do something with their lives, my architectural journey has been fruitful; buildings stand, homes have been created. In many respects, however, the experience of my career is one of having the rug repeatedly pulled from under my feet; I graduated immediately after the 2008 financial crisis to enter a construction industry in paralysis, and all the work the industry had been doing towards The Zero-Carbon Homes Standard was ripped-up by The Conservatives in 2015.

In 2017, as I was flying in a Tiger Moth to Normandy, to commemorate the D-day Landings with an American TV company, I was unexpectedly choked. North of London, we had flown into a thick layer of smoke smoke, which was issuing from the Grenfell Tower Disaster (photo). The experience was less horrific than the event, which was a catastrophe both for the victims and their families, and also for the construction industry. I have described a ‘palpable tyranny of consultants’, and ‘increasingly siloed professionals’, and a new ‘compliance industry in service of insurers’; Grenfell, to a significant extent, has catalysed and accelerated these changes, in pursuit of accountability for the next disaster. I personally find the new professional environment as stifling and toxic as a smoke-cloud.