Ruth Haynes MA MEng CEng FICE (NC 1994) has published a timely book for the Institution of Structural Engineers, Structural Robustness and Disproportionate Collapse in Buildings. In 2021 she became a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 19 years after becoming a Member of the ICE.
“I taught on the subject of Robustness and Disproportionate Collapse (at the Institution of Structural Engineers) and that experience, along with the compliance roles in which I saw the designs from many engineers, made me realise that there was still a lack of knowledge when designing a robust building, despite it being almost 50 years since the Ronan Point collapse.
“As a designer I had been heavily reliant on the IStructE’s book, A Practical Guide to Structural Robustness and Disproportionate Collapse in Buildings… I suggested to the IStructE that it was revised, and that we added more content to make it as easy as possible for structural engineers to get their engineering designs correct. I hope that it will be a valuable resource to structural engineers, especially in this new era of construction following the Grenfell fire and the new Building Safety Act.”