The reality and reason of Code Compliance

Our New Zealand Building Code sets the minimum, so it is fair to say it prescribes the worst-performing building you can legally build. And while we need minimums, most homes are designed to this as a target. Most people I talk to, think that Code Compliance means their home is built well and is built to healthy standards. The reality is that it means it meets the minimum legally required to be signed off. In the past, without incentives such as Homestar, this became the norm. And to be honest, it still is the way of many.

How did we get here? How do we do better?

As an Architectural Designer who has designed these minimum code-compliant homes in the past, I can hold my hand up and honestly say the reasons why I have contributed to our poor stock of new homes.

Firstly, risk. If you follow the details, you reduce the risk. PI Insurance is one of the most expensive yet necessary things for an Architectural practice. Smart Business practice says to reduce the risk, so I followed the details that I knew were backed by the law and by manufacturers.

Secondly, the Industry has in the past been very unsupportive of innovation with the responsibility to detail the combination of products left on the Architects' and Architectural Designers' drawing boards. Innovative details above code specifications are seldom provided for nor backed by manufacturers who ultimately always benefit from the specification of their product. I am pleased to see companies like Starke Joinery, Formance, and Rosenfield Kidson, help and support Architects and Architectural Designers. These companies embrace innovation, have above-minimum performing details, and provide excellent technical support. Companies like these are also involved in conversations around Passive House, Homestar, and Healthy Energy Efficient Buildings. They want to understand how to be better and how they can contribute. We need to see all of us doing better, not relying on the innovation and specification unsustainably put on the shoulders of a few or a single sector.  

Lastly, there are the Group Home Building Companies. Disclaimer this is not all of them, but my experience of doing work with some of them has been interesting. Often, I was given instructions about the claddings, the layout, form, the insulation products and values, and other material specifications and systems which had already been written into contracts or costings with clients long before I was involved in the process.

There seems to be a common occurring disconnect between the Architectural Designer and client with salespeople liaising in between. The scope and space to design healthy and energy-efficient buildings are eliminated as most of these salespeople aren’t Architecturally trained. In an attempt to control cost and the process, we have created an underperforming product. Design by salespersons or clients is not solving our poor-performing housing crisis, it is playing a part to increase it.

We need to see a performance-based approach, not wait for it to be written into law, although that is coming in the next decade I feel. Designing and building high-performance homes doesn’t rely on minimum values, it relies on adequate design and site-specific evaluation.

We don’t need to change what we are doing; we need to build more homes. We do need to change how we are doing it if we are to build healthy and energy-efficient homes.

We don’t need to reinvent the wheel; we have the tools and training right here in New Zealand. We have the products and people ready.

What we need to do is to stop treating our Building code as the target and stop building the worst-performing building we can legally build.

We need to think about the people we are designing and building for, both our clients and future occupants. We need to consider the health and energy bills of those who we will never meet but whose every day our skills, processes, and decisions today will affect.

We can build better for people and the planet, and we can start right now. Let’s not build based on today’s minimums, let us create for tomorrow.