BRANZ RESEARCH influences 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 fire in London, it is opportune that this Build has a feature on fire safety. BRANZ fire engineers are improving our understanding of fire behaviour in buildings. Projects such as Fire-safe use of timber construction and Vertical fire spread in tall buildings are just two examples of research that will help inform the fire safety of buildings.
Results from these projects feed into B-RISK, a fire design and analysis software application developed by BRANZ to help fire safety engineers design fire-safe buildings.
BRANZ also released the Guide to Passive Fire Protection in Buildings earlier this year. This provides guidance for the effective use of passive fire protection – construction elements within a building designed to prevent or delay the spread of fire and smoke to other parts of the structure.
Research findings 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 fire documents, and MBIE has provided an overview of these.
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.
I know you will find 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
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Articles are correct at the time of publication but may have since become outdated.
