“In the context of the built environment, social value is created when buildings, places and infrastructure support environmental, economic and social wellbeing, and in doing so improve the quality of life of people.” This definition of social value, recently published by the UK Green Building Council, will I hope become the standard for the industry.

The team have done a remarkable job in developing a diagram that somehow morphs Kate Raworth’s famous Doughnut and the commonly used triple bottom line of sustainability – social, economic and environmental. For me, as argued in the social value toolkit for architecture, we have to keep referring back to that triple bottom line as the basis of everything we do, not only because it aligns with the government’s Treasury Green Book but because it is the simplest, most demonstrable way we have of evidencing the value of good buildings and places. In an era where data, and its categorisations, are going to become increasingly powerful we have to keep things simple.

The Quality of Life Foundation has just published its remarkable framework for showing how homes and communities affect our quality of life. It was developed with Urbed who were also the brains behind the new national design code, and they sit together well. In many ways the framework is an expansion and improvement on the set of post-occupancy evaluation questions that we offered in the Social Value Toolkit for Architecture. The Quality of Life Foundation is already developing it into a post-occupancy service with considerable interest from developers.

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