Former London mayor Ken Livingstone is urging architects to consider external escape routes on apartment blocks in the wake of the fire at Grenfell Tower.
Experts acknowledge that there would be safety risks associated with building external staircases on high buildings, but examples do exist, among them the Mirante do Vale skyscraper in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Local Authority Building Control’s director of technical policy, Barry Turner, said an external fire escape above a certain height was not possible, and that it would need to be enclosed and protected from the weather.
