Analysing commercial developments to see how excellent design adds economic, social and environmental value.
THE Value of Urban Design asks some fundamental questions about the place of architecture and design in modern society. In what ways does good design – in this case good urban design – produce economic and social value? What do high quality buildings and spaces give back, in hard financial and utilitarian terms, to those who fund and use them? And how can that value be meaningfully captured so that clients, investors and developers are persuaded that good design adds to the bottom line and gives their product a competitive edge?
CABE and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions commissioned the Bartlett School of Planning at the University of London to investigate the economic, social and environmental value added by good urban design.
Encouragingly, the answers suggest that good design brings very specific economic, social and environmental benefits to a range of stakeholders, for example by improving returns on investments, helping to deliver more lettable area, reducing whole-life costs, increasing workforce productivity and producing a regeneration dividend.
This research forms part of a hardnosed effort to ensure that good architecture and design are valued and hence properly funded by all those clients, both public and private, who create the buildings and spaces that form the backdrop to our daily lives.