The standards library

Built module by module.

Each module is one published design standard, hand-curated into checkable requirements — every rule kept with its verbatim clause and reference. We launch narrow and go deep; the corpus is the moat.

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LiveNZ Ministry of Education · vMarch 2026 · Mar 2026

School Property Design Standards

The overarching MoE school property design standards — a cited, discipline-organised design-review checklist across site, spaces and technical performance.

✦The whole standard as a cited checklist — site, spaces, technical

✦Scoped to your design: absent spaces (pool, gym…) marked N/A

✦Numeric clauses — fences, door openings, clear heights — read off the plans

✦Specialist clauses (fire, structural, services) routed to your engineers

Review against this standard

LiveNZ Ministry of Education · v3.2 · Oct 2025

Toilets & Changing Areas

Toilet & changing space design standards, guidance and reference designs for schools.

✦Room sizes & clearances, measured from the plan

✦Fixture counts from the sanitary schedule

✦Mounting heights from the interior elevations

✦Finishes, coved upstands & slip resistance

Review against this standard

LiveNZ Ministry of Education · v3.2 · Oct 2025

Weathertightness

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.

✦Prohibited materials & forms flagged (monolithic cladding, internal gutters, direct-fixed cladding…)

✦Scoped to your work: retaining walls, sub-floors, balconies, masonry, membrane roofs marked N/A when absent

✦Cavity, rigid underlay, cladding clearance & threshold-channel rules for re-clads

✦Roof pitch, eaves/overflow, flashings & penetration detailing as cited checkpoints

Review against this standard

Roadmap

In development, and where we're heading.

The engine is built general and launches narrow. New standards ship as each requirement library is authored and checked by a domain expert — ministry and agency design standards first.

In development

Designing Quality Learning Spaces

NZ Ministry of Education · Schools

Acoustics, lighting, ventilation, heating and flexibility of learning spaces (DQLS).

In development

Fencing & Barriers

NZ Ministry of Education · Schools

Boundary and internal fencing, gates and fall-protection barriers for school sites.

In development

Fire & Life Safety

NZ Ministry of Education · Schools

Egress, fire separations and life-safety provisions specific to school property.

In development

Kāinga Ora Design Requirements

Kāinga Ora · Beyond schools

Public-housing design requirements — the platform expanding past the education sector.

In development

Health Facility Design

Te Whatu Ora · Beyond schools

Design guidance for health facilities — another agency standard set on the roadmap.

On sources

What we do — and don't — reproduce.

Modules are ministry and agency design standards, published under Crown copyright (CC BY-NC 4.0 NZ). DC Copilot references third-party standards — NZS 4121, the NZ Building Code — as the legal minimums and points you to verify against them, but never reproduces their text. The line between "reference" and "reproduce" is deliberate and load-bearing.

Read the licensing & sources note →

Need a standard we don't cover yet?

Tell us which published design standard you work to. Demand shapes the roadmap — the next module is usually the one the most people ask for.

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