Designing better
Significant performance improvements can be achieved affordably in houses by designing above the New Zealand Building Code minimum requirements. So, where is a good place to start to improve the liveability of a house?
This website is best viewed on a newer browser than the one you are using. Learn about upgrading your browser (opens in a new window/tab)
Welcome to BRANZ Build. Skip to main content.
Showing results 1-10 of 11
Order by:
Significant performance improvements can be achieved affordably in houses by designing above the New Zealand Building Code minimum requirements. So, where is a good place to start to improve the liveability of a house?
Building a house is always expensive, but it is often decisions about fixtures and fittings and those little extras that push the budget higher. Designers and architects can help by directing clients to more pennywise choices that don’t affect performance.
BRANZ has a variety of online resources that can be used by designers and builders to deliver warmer, drier better-performing homes without breaking the bank.
Part two of our series on the carbon impact of stand-alone houses looks at how to design houses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. This is crucial to helping New Zealand meet its environmental commitments.
Developers subdividing land and owners commissioning new homes have one chance to get the basic solar design principles right. Siting and designing new dwellings can be done cost-effectively and will substantially increase performance over a dwelling’s lifetime.
Controlling fire spread between residential buildings and outbuildings is important for protecting life and property. We recap the requirements and look at an area of confusion – fire rating of windows and doors in walls close to a boundary.
A recent caller to the BRANZ helpline scratched the surface of a problem that sometimes crops up on building sites – differing views on best practice for material compatibility.
The risk matrix in E2/AS1 is a key tool for weathertightness assessment and showing compliance with the Building Code. Let’s walk through the steps on how to use it.
Here, we offer a solution to NZS 3604:2011 Timber-framed buildings clause 5.5.2, which has had callers to the BRANZ helpline scratching their heads.
The article Back to solar design basics in Build 178 looked at the principles of designing for the sun in new suburbs and new house construction. In this follow-up article, we look at what is happening in practice and the costs of getting it wrong.