Bruce Sedcole

Lead Architect

Bruce Sedcole ensures that BRANZ's technical advice is grounded in industry practice – bridging the gap between building science and building sites.

Architecture demands a broad skill set: design, legislation, construction, materials, heritage. Most of it can't be learned from a textbook – it's gained from decades of hard graft. With 35 years as a practising architect, Bruce Sedcole brings that breadth of knowledge to BRANZ. 

As Lead Architect, Bruce writes and reviews bulletins, guidelines, and technical articles for professionals working across architecture and construction, ensuring that BRANZ's advice is not only evidence-based but workable on site. Building is complex, legislation changes constantly, and practitioners are time-poor. Bruce translates that complexity into clear guidance. "If you want to communicate with architects and builders, you have to do it in a certain way because it’s not as straightforward as you might think."

He currently leads BRANZ Homes – an open-source house design project offering consent-ready plans that are affordable, sustainable, and replicable at scale, using 45–55% less carbon than a standard build. He is also involved in developing guidance for new granny flat exemptions – helping industry understand and apply the new rules.

Bruce still runs his own architecture firm in Wellington, which he has led since the late 1980s and considers part of his DNA. "I get a lot out of BRANZ and I bring a lot of experience from the industry back in. It works both ways – it's doubly rewarding." The intellectual environment at BRANZ feeds him too: "I love having all those scientists just down the corridor. I can just go and knock on the door and talk things through."

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Building Science (BBSc), Victoria University of Wellington, Te Herenga Waka
• Bachelor of Architecture (BArch (Hons), Victoria University of Wellington, Te Herenga Waka