Design Compliance Copilot
Caught at concept.
Proven by the clause.
AI review of building designs against published design standards — every finding backed by the exact quoted clause. An assistant, not a certifier: you verify and decide.
First live standard · NZ Ministry of Education — Toilets & Changing Areas
Why it matters
Compliance failures don't announce themselves.
Standards go beyond the Building Code
Agency design standards add hundreds of specific provisions — clearances, heights, counts, finishes — that a Code check never surfaces.
The knowledge sits with a few
The detail lives in long PDFs and a handful of specialists. A lead designer can't hold every clause in their head across every sheet.
Caught late is caught expensive
A miss found at submission or on site means redesign, re-consenting and delay. The cheapest place to catch it is at concept.
How it works
From a PDF to a cited review, in three steps.
Upload the drawing set
Drop a vector PDF. The triage reads each sheet's drawing name and sorts them — floor plan, sanitary schedule, interior elevations — so the right sheet feeds each check.
The engine reads, then checks
AI reads the plan layout, the schedule counts and the elevation heights; the deterministic engine measures rooms from the vectors and tests each requirement, clause by clause.
A cited report you verify
Every finding comes back with the exact quoted clause and reference, grouped into must-fix, review and pass. You confirm each one and decide.
Citation-first
No verdict without the clause that proves it.
Most tools give you an opinion. DC Copilot gives you the source. Every finding traces back to the exact published provision — verbatim text and reference — so you, and your client, can check it in seconds rather than trust a black box.
- ✦Verbatim clause + reference on every finding
- ✦Stage-aware — concept, preliminary or developed
- ✦Grouped by must-fix, meet-where-practicable, review and pass
Basin mounting height — junior toilet area
Read basin rim at 720 mm; the age-group range for this room type warrants a designer check against the accessible fixture requirement.
“Wash-hand basins are to be mounted at a height suited to the age group served, and coordinated with the accessible fixture where one is provided.”
Illustrative — your report quotes the exact published clause
The standards library
Built module by module. The corpus is the moat.
School Property Design Standards
NZ Ministry of Education · Schools
The overarching MoE school property design standards — a cited, discipline-organised design-review checklist across site, spaces and technical performance.
Toilets & Changing Areas
NZ Ministry of Education · Schools
Toilet & changing space design standards, guidance and reference designs for schools.
Weathertightness
NZ Ministry of Education · Schools
The MoE Weathertightness Design Requirements as a cited design-review checklist — prohibited materials/forms, cladding & cavity, roof, junctions and moisture management for school buildings and end-of-life re-clad/re-roof.
Designing Quality Learning Spaces
NZ Ministry of Education · Schools
Acoustics, lighting, ventilation, heating and flexibility of learning spaces (DQLS).
Fencing & Barriers
NZ Ministry of Education · Schools
Boundary and internal fencing, gates and fall-protection barriers for school sites.
Fire & Life Safety
NZ Ministry of Education · Schools
Egress, fire separations and life-safety provisions specific to school property.
Kāinga Ora Design Requirements
Kāinga Ora · Beyond schools
Public-housing design requirements — the platform expanding past the education sector.
Health Facility Design
Te Whatu Ora · Beyond schools
Design guidance for health facilities — another agency standard set on the roadmap.
Who it's for
For the people who answer for the drawings.
Architectural designers
Catch standard-specific misses at concept, before they cost a redesign — and hand your client a cited rationale.
Reviewers & assessors
A first-pass safety net that shows its working, so your time goes to judgement calls, not clause-hunting.
Practices & consultants
Consistent, defensible checks across a team — with the provenance to back every point in a report.
Pricing
Pay only for what you review.
Credits, not seats. A simple five-page set costs a fraction of a forty-page one, you see the estimate before you run, and re-runs within a project are cheap. New accounts start with free credits.
You own the decision
An assistant, not a certifier.
DC Copilot surfaces citations, not rulings. Every check traces back to the published clause so you — and your client — can verify it. It augments professional judgement; it never replaces it, and it never signs off.
Get started
Put it to work on a real set.
Try the built-in sample, or upload your own drawings. New accounts start with free credits — no card to begin.