Page 6 - Build 161

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From the Editor
Informing change
BRANZ RESEARCH in uences many areas across the building industry. Over the last year, Build has been able to provide a glimpse into some of BRANZ’s projects and results, including those from the Better buildings programme, Aiming higher and Medium-density housing.
After the tragic Grenfell Tower re in London, it is opportune that this Build has a feature on re safety. BRANZ re engineers are improving our understanding of re behaviour in buildings. Projects such as Fire-safe use of timber construction (see pages 65– 67) and Vertical fire spread in tall buildings (see pages 69–70) are just two examples of research that will help inform the re safety of buildings.
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Results from these projects feed into B-RISK, a re design and analysis software application developed by BRANZ to help re safety engineers design re-safe buildings (see pages 72–73).
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BRANZ also released the Guide to Passive Fire Protection in Buildings earlier this year. This provides guidance for the e ective use of passive re protection – construction elements within a building designed to prevent or delay the spread of re and smoke to other parts of the structure.
Research ndings such as these help inform the changes the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) makes to the Building Code or standards. Currently, there are many changes proposed to the re documents, and MBIE has provided an overview of these (see pages 62–63).
And for those a little confused about the Building Code, standards, Acceptable Solutions, Alternative Solutions and how it all works together, we have our second feature – building controls (see pages 44–59).
I know you will nd something of interest in these pages to help you in your work. Now, it’s up to you to use this information to provide better buildings for New Zealanders.
Annemarie Crampton
Build Editor
BUILD
You are welcome to send the Editor a note at any time. Email Annemarie. Crampton@ branz.co.nz
4 — August/September 2017 — Build 161
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