If you've recently received a building consent or are planning to build a new home, you may have been surprised to receive a Development Levy notice from your local council.

Why do small renovations need detailed building consent drawings? Why documented compliance with the New Zealand Building Code affects renovation design and project costs.

Building projects have a habit of humbling everyone involved in them. On paper a project can look tidy, rational, even elegant. Then the real world arrives with its material prices, labour pinches, engineering constraints, local council requirements and the laws of physics. Somewhere in that messy intersection sits the actual cost of construction. One of the most common misunderstandings in building projects is the role we play in that equation. As the designers we can influe