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Researchers to make 3D model of Grenfell Tower fire from witness videos

Researchers based at Goldsmiths College in London plan to create a 3D digital model that recreates the Grenfell fire to allow the public to see for themselves how the catastrophic blaze progressed through the building.

The unusual project aims to merge images from thousands of videos of the fire taken by the public over the night of 14 June last year with an architectural model of the building to create a "3D video" people can explore on a web platform, says the research agency behind the project, Forensic Architecture.

The team are appealing for those who have recordings of the fire to upload them here.

Contributing also to the model will be data on phone calls made by people in the tower, data from the emergency services, and eye-witness testimony, it is hoped.

Forensic Architecture says the model will "allow the user to investigate the fire, and will sit within a web platform which will ultimately act as a freely available public resource".

Seventy-one people died in the fire that rapidly engulfed the 24-storey tower block owned by the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The tragedy is presently the subject of a public inquiry.

Forensic Architecture has conducted a number of investigations into violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in "urban, media-rich environments".

It does this by creating navigable 3D models of sites of conflict together with animations and interactive maps.

As well as the Grenfell fire, the agency is investigating torture in Cameroon, police brutality in Mexico, and the demolition of Bedouin villages Israel’s Negev desert.

Image: Forensic Architecture’s model of the fire

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Comments

  1. Sounds like a great organisation and much needed

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