The New Zealand Government is reviewing the fire safety provisions in their Building Code. This review was initiated partly in response to the Loafers Lodge fire on 16 May 2023 in Wellington, New Zealand where 5 people died. This incident highlighted the importance of fire safety in buildings and brought to light some of the long-standing issues in the building regulatory system. The ultimate goal of the review is to create a system that improves fire safety outcomes while still supporting the development of more affordable buildings in New Zealand.
New Zealand has a performance-based building code, focusing on the desired outcomes of a building rather than prescribing specific design and construction methods. . This review looked at issues where the quantified performance-based criteria, introduced in 2012, have been difficult to implement due to their complexity, ambiguity, and lack of clarity. Additionally, it looked at new fire safety challenges that the current framework does not adequately address as the result of changes in the built environment. The use of innovative timber products, battery storage and charging, roof-top solar panels, and higher levels of urban intensification add new complexities to fire safety and firefighting.
This paper will present the findings of the first phase of the review which sought to identify issues associated with the current fire safety provisions. The most significant issues that were identified relate to technical gaps in the Building Code which fail to adequately address emerging fire hazards and specific challenges such as the evacuation of occupants with disabilities. This can lead to situations where the Building Code fails to protect those who are most at risk in our country from the effects of fire. It was also identified that the performance-based New Zealand Building Code is complex to navigate and the gaps in the requirements can lead to inconsistent decision making on what is required to demonstrate compliance. This can cause frustrations for designers and engineers and makes it harder for people to design and construct buildings.
The current performance-based framework can lead to confusion, inconsistency, and inefficiency in the regulatory system. The implementation of a performance-based building code must consider broader regulatory challenges including the controls on consenting/permitting processes, building product regulation, training and education of the broader base of practitioners, and other regulatory system goals. A performance-based framework must be flexible enough to allow innovative designs but also flexible in the types of fire hazards and challenges it can address.
