All of these design features helped to achieve exceptionally low carbon emissions, with both centres achieving A rated energy performance certificates.
The ‘triple bottom line’, as identified by Carmona et al., is a sum of environmental, economic, and social values, and is one of the most used methods of grouping value types in governmental strategies, such as HM Treasury’s Green Book (UKGov, 2018) guidance; the means by which the UK government assesses cost benefits in appraisal and evaluation processes..While there is a growing variety of measures used to assess the environmental impact of projects (such as embodied carbon and operational energy), and economic value is frequently used as the central justification of projects, there is no agreed metric for assessing social value in architecture and in the impact of projects.. Social value in the UK: establishing benefits of good design.
The social impact of developments on communities and the way they are designed are gaining traction as key metrics in UK government policy.Although not specifically intended to apply to the design of buildings and places, the Social Value Act (Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012) requires those who commission services to consider how wider social, economic, and environmental benefits can be secured, indicating an increased recognition of the importance of social value in the UK.RIBA has recently published the Social Value Toolkit for Architecture, developed in partnership between the University of Reading and the London-based Research Practice Leads, as an attempt to establish a common methodology for measuring the monetisation of social value through calculating the social return on investment.
This is intended as a starting point for use by practitioners in the industry to understand and embed social value in architectural practice.A central recommendation is an attempt to increase the prevalence of post-occupancy evaluations conducted by architects, to enable mapping of intangible impacts such as social value.
The current, alarming, lack of collection by architects of real-life data on the impact of their schemes suggests that this societal feedback loop is not necessarily being designed into future schemes..
Within a wider context, the construction industry itself is fundamental to the implementation of these social values.The spurs are arranged in ’T’ shapes, creating outdoor courtyard spaces with plants.
Green spaces offer opportunities for both leisure activities and vital employment to prisoners, encouraging them to value their environment.. Barless windows that do not open and have integrated ventilation grills.This type of glazing provides comparable security without the need for bars addressing specific security threats, preventing waste being thrown from windows and reducing noise spreading beyond the prison wall.. Social interaction between staff and prisoners is key to rehabilitation.
Victorian-style gallery blocks with a warden’s desk at one end have been abandoned in favour of a staff station placed more centrally, in a way that encourages interaction rather than observation.. Main, central functions like dining, exercise equipment and access to medical care have been broken up and placed in each house block.Each block can contain a kitchen for communal cooking, classrooms, cardio gym equipment, a medicine point and laundry services, to create an environment more conducive to rehabilitation..