Facility Design Guidance Resources

The National Facility Design, Advisory and Assurance team (NFDAA) provide direction, design resources and support to help designers to deliver fit-for-purpose and affordable healthcare facilities.

The NFDAA team is helping Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora establish a more standardised approach to health facility briefing, design and delivery.

We do this by actively developing and reviewing design guidance and running design assurance reviews through the design process.

The team is the relationship holder with the Australasian Health Infrastructure Alliance (AHIA) who develop and review the Australasian Health Facility Guidelines (AusHFG). The NFDAA work to involve New Zealand subject matter experts and consumers, to be sure that the AusHFG are appropriate for the New Zealand context.

The NFDAA team also provides ongoing education and training to build health design capability and inform the sector about the value of good quality design in healthcare.

Te Pae Tata sets out the need for design standards for Health NZ facilities, with design standards based on the Australasian Health Facility Guidelines.

The Design Guidance and Assurance Framework outlines the objectives and processes for developing and implementing design guidance, including assurance processes to support implementation.

Design Guidance and Assurance Framework - FAQ PDF

The AusHFG form the basis of standardised health facility design in Aotearoa New Zealand. Any NZ-specific considerations are outlined in the Design Guidance Notes that augment the AusHFG. NZ specific guidance can be found at:

• New Zealand Health Facility Design Guidance Note – Health NZ, and
• Design Guidance Note: Fire Engineering Design for New Zealand Public Hospitals – Health NZ

The NZ Design Guidance Notes (DGNs) provide design guidance relevant to the NZ context, which is not already included in the AusHFG. The NZ DGNs should be read in conjunction with the AusHFG.

AHIA review the AusHFG on a regular basis. As elements of the AusHFG come up for review, content from the NZ DGNs will be shared with AHIA project team for possible inclusion in the AusHFG.

Participation in the AusHFG review cycle is essential to ensure that NZ specific content is considered and included in the documents where possible. The NFDAA team work to involve New Zealand subject matter experts in AHIA guidance drafting and review processes.

Supporting the design industry to deliver high quality, consistent, timely, innovative and affordable health projects for our country and communities are a key objective for the team.

Health NZ health infrastructure projects should expect to have design assurance reviews completed at each of the following milestones (see Design Guidance and Assurance Framework Appendix 1 to see what type of review is right for your project):

• Test of Fit Design
• Concept Design
• Preliminary Design
• Developed Design​​​​​​​

The following key areas are reviewed; 

• Australasian Health Facility Guidelines – application, alignment, tracking and transparency
• NZ Design Guidance Notes – application of principles and specific design considerations
• Architecture – review of designed response and proposal
• Schedule of accommodation – structure, content and tracking systems
• Standardisation – application and management of standard components 

To contact the National Facility Design, Advisory and Assurance team email facility.design@tewhatuora.govt.nz

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