Professor Ted Kesik is a member of a multi-disciplinary team that made a successful application for funding under the 2017 University College London – University of Toronto Call for Joint Research Projects and Exchange Activities. University College London (UCL) and the University of Toronto contributed matching funds to support collaborative education and research initiatives through a joint call for proposals for the development of collaborative activities.

The 2-year research project entitled Best Practices Guidelines for Tower Block Refurbishment is a response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in North Kensington, West London in June 2017, which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries.

Kesik was the principal researcher for a major technical guide in support of Toronto’s Tower Renewal program in 2009. The guide focused on overcladding and briefly outlined the need for a more comprehensive approach to the refurbishment of tower apartment buildings based on the ‘building-as-a-system’ approach. Technological advances, performance gaps, and recent disasters are among the many reasons updated guidelines and regulatory protocols need to be developed and transferred to the housing sector.

The research team is led by Professor Marianne Touchie, an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Civil Engineering and Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, and includes Dr. Nicole Zimmermann and Dr. Ian Hamilton, who are both part of the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources at University College London. Dr. Kesik is a professor of building science at the Daniels Faculty.