The new building inspectors' rules at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/registered-building-inspectors say something about building types.

They have the notion of "Standard buildings" which they say are: "A standard build is designed and constructed from common industry recognised standards and codes." Then they say "Non-standard buildings" are "A non-standard build are buildings that include anything outside of common construction techniques in England or Wales. They do not follow industry recognised design principles set out in relevant building guidance codes such as AD, BS or technical docs" and further say "Non-standard building work can include:??? difficult ground conditions; buildings with unusual occupancies or high levels of complexity, for example shopping centres occupied by shoppers and workers, conference centres and hospitals; very large or very tall buildings?and large timber buildings; some buildings that incorporate modern construction methods"

Now those definitions seem pretty woolly to me! And there are no links to better, tighter definitions. Is government really so poor as to publish this kind of rubbish?

For example:
- what is meant by 'difficult ground conditions'?
- is a traditional cob house standard or non-standard?
- is a straw bale house that follows the AD and BS guidance/requirements standard or non-standard?
- how large does a timber frame construction need to be to be 'non standard'?