Fire Engineering in New Zealand - Lessons From 17 Years of a Performance-Based Building Code

The practice of fire engineering in New Zealand has now some 17 years of experience operating under a performance-based building code. The industry emerged as a result of a radical change in building regulations in 1991, when there was a change from a heavily prescriptive regime to a performance-based set of rules almost overnight. Performance-based fire engineering was embraced as a new way of producing innovative designs.

The industry has matured over the years from a naive start when in its infancy and has gone through some painful learning experiences. Fire engineering is still not a fully mature industry. There are still some significant challenges to be overcome as the practice of fire engineering settles into a structure and method of operating that is universally accepted by all the stakeholders.

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