Design standards for school property
All school building projects must comply with legal and Ministry design standards and should follow best practice standards. As a board of trustees, you must make sure that any consultant or contractor you use for your project is aware of the standards. Refer them to this page for more information. Large projects of $3 million or more will be reviewed by our Design Review Panel.
- Benefits of following design standards
- Meeting your responsibilities to follow the standards
- Three kinds of design standards
- Post occupancy evaluations (POEs) help improve future school designs
- Summary of design standards
- Having designs reviewed by the Design Review Panel
Benefits of following design standards
When you are building or upgrading a school building, you must comply with certain design standards. The reason for mandatory design standards is to:
- keep the building safe and fit for purpose
- provide the best physical environment for people using the school
- get the best long-term value for money from the new system or building
- protect the Government’s investment in school buildings.
Meeting your responsibilities to follow the standards
Much of the information in the standards is very technical. As a board of trustees, you are not expected to understand all of it. However, you do need to make sure any consultant or contractor you use is aware of the standards.
Direct your consultants and contractors to this page for more information.
Three kinds of design standards
The 3 kinds of design standards that you must consider in a building project are:
- legal requirements
- Ministry requirements
- best practice standards.
Legal requirements for a building project
All building work at schools must comply with:
- Building Act 2004 (New Zealand Legislation website) (external link)
- Building regulations (the New Zealand Building Code) (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website) (external link)
- Resource Management Act 1991 (New Zealand Legislation website) (external link) and District Plans
- Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (New Zealand Legislation website) (external link)
- Fire Service Act 1975 (New Zealand Legislation website) (external link)
- Fire Safety and Evacuation of Buildings Regulations 2006 (New Zealand Legislation website) (external link)
- Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 (New Zealand Legislation website) (external link)
- Construction Contracts Act 2002 (New Zealand Legislation website) (external link)
- any other statutory building requirements.
The Building Code has ‘compliance’ documents that set out:
- acceptable methods for designing and constructing buildings
- performance specifications, which are the legal standards required to make a building safe for the people who use it and their neighbours.
Designers can use other design solutions. However, the standard they achieve must be the same as or higher than the performance specifications.
For more information and to download copies of the compliance documents, go to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website (external link) .
Ministry requirements for a building project
Building work must meet our Ministry design standards. We have some mandatory requirements specifically for school buildings. In some cases, these standards are higher than the legal requirements. This acknowledges the unique nature of schools and the extra wear and tear on school buildings due to large numbers of people using them.
A key document detailing mandatory Ministry design standards is the Structural and Geotechnical Guidelines for School Design.
Best practice standards for a building project
Not all the Ministry standards are mandatory. Some are ‘best practice’, which we recommend you follow to:
- extend the life of the buildings
- make them more comfortable for the people using them.
Post occupancy evaluations help improve future school designs
We commission a post occupancy evaluation (POE) of all new builds and major school redevelopments. These evaluations help us improve future designs of schools. Reading past POE's can be helpful before starting a new build or major redevelopment at your school.
Summary of design standards
This table lists the design standards that apply to a school building project. It shows whether they are a legal requirement, Ministry requirement, best practice standard or a mixture of these.
Summary of standards for a school building project
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Legal requirement |
Ministry requirement |
Best practice |
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Yes |
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Yes |
Yes |
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Yes |
Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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| Yes |
Yes |
Yes | |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
Yes |
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Yes |
Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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Yes |
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| Yes | |||
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Yes |
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Yes |
Yes |
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Having designs reviewed by the Design Review Panel
We have set up the Design Review Panel (DRP) to do independent, high-level reviews of school development projects at various design stages.
This affects all new schools and schools doing significant redevelopments where the project will cost $3 million or more.
The DRP will assist in the process of ensuring that design teams are basing their work on the national standards and guidelines for school property design.
Panel members will do a high-level ‘snapshot’ appraisal of the design and use their extensive industry experience to raise questions and make suggestions.
As reviews are high-level, the focus is on consistency of approach towards school design looking at architecture/general building, geotechnical constraints/opportunities, structure, building services, and civil and infrastructure.
If you want to know more about the DRP, contact your property advisor. A summary factsheet can be found under ‘Further Information’, below.
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