Description

Is New Zealand striking the right balance of fire safety measures in multi-storey apartment buildings? We look at requirements in several countries to see how we compare.

As the number of multi-storey apartment buildings in New Zealand grows to meet increasing housing needs, is an acceptable level of fire safety provided? A risk-informed basis for fire resistance requirements in densified housing in Aotearoa New Zealand is being investigated to help answer this question.

A useful starting point is to compare our regulatory settings to other jurisdictions with similar societal expectations and regulatory systems but greater numbers of buildings, people and fires.

This article compares prescriptive requirements in New Zealand with those in Australia, Canada, the United States and England and asks do we have the balance between competing goals right? Requirements include structural fire resistance, combustible and non-combustible construction and using automatic sprinklers in multi-storey apartment buildings.

Scope

This article includes:

• Regulate by disaster?
• Performance-based versus prescriptive fire design
• Mass timber buildings bring challenges
• How do we compare to other countries?
• What is best for New Zealand?