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UKGBC Framework for Defining Social Value: A framework for defining and delivering social value on built environment projects.

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For assignment 3 I am considering as my topic the ability to embed social value within the built environment

“Social value is the total impact of a project or investment on society, which includes sources of value that cannot be defined by conventional market economics, for example, the confidence people gain when securing meaningful work, the mental health benefits they gain from being able to spend time in nature or in feeling connected to their community, or the sense of safety and agency someone with a disability feels when using a public transport system that has been designed to meet their needs”[1]

There are a number of triggers throughout course so far that have led me to this:

1. The element to which design awards showcase projects that truly demonstrate the value to the community they serve

2. The increasing focus on embedding sustainability and community within design e.g. Green New Deal

3. The discussions on privately owned public space and is it really public?

4.  The challenges created for many communities even today by the modernist movement, I wonder could this have been avoided through better engagement with the community

5. Design governance and the tension between design as a state power and design as a market force, is the emergence of social value and its focus on the community an attempt to restore the balance?

While I acknowledge that many built environment projects do achieve public good, I am also of the opinion that by embedding social value into the design of projects we have the opportunity to achieve more, often for no or little additional investment.

The ability to monetise social value also provides us with powerful mechanism to lobby for funding for projects as we are now able to explain the value of projects ‘beyond the BCR[2]’ allowing projects to demonstrate their contribution to society, governance and the environment as well as economics.  Social return on investment can support the direction of funds to where they matter most.

Australia is lagging behind other nations in the consideration of social value. Although we are starting to see some elements picked up e.g.:

Victorian Value Creation and Value Capture Framework

New South Wales – Valuing Green Infrastructure and Public Spaces

Queensland – Queensland Procurement Policy

Infrastructure Australia – Assessment Framework

From research to date the UK is leading the field in this area, largely due to the implementation of the Social Value Act 2012, which it has been interpreted to have a broad remit and has morphed from its initial implementation to government procurement to include aspects such as planning and design.

I propose to examine the mechanisms and methodologies proposed in order to include social value in urban design. Considering the opportunities and challenges in doing so. I will then examine precedents in an attempt to determine how the proposed methodologies influenced design and the outcomes achieved in various projects.

Principles literature:

Bailey, J, Kimbell, L, Kaszynksa, P. Mazzarella, F. Todd, J, Nold, C. (2021) Design Economy 2021 Scoping Project Environmental and Social Value of Design. Design Council

Boyce, E. and McWhirter, S. (2022) A Guide for Delivering Social Value on Built Environment Projects. UK Green Building Council.

Dobson, J (2020) Maximising Social Value from Infrastructure Projects. Institution of Civil Engineers

London Sustainable Development Commission (2020) Social Value in Regeneration and Placemaking. Consultation Document for Local Authorities. Greater London Authority

UKGBC (2021) Framework for Defining Social Value A Framework for defining and delivering social value on built environment projects.

Useful projects (2021) Creating social value through design. Accessed 02.05.21 Retrieved from https://usefulprojects.co.uk/how-can-we-create-social-value-through-design/

Possible precedents:

·         Meridian Water, London, UK

·         Edinburgh City Centre, Scotland, UK

·         Suburban Rail Loop, Victoria, AUS

·         Birkdale Community Precinct, Redlands, AUS (note this is a project I have worked on)

[1] Alexander, S., Jones McCoy, R., Stanley, E (2020) Before & Beyond the Build: A blueprint for creating enduring social value at scale through infrastructure investments. Jacobs
[2] Tucker, D (2021) Beyond the BCR: A holistic approach to infrastructure evaluation. Accessed 02.05.22 retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beyond-bcr-holistic-approach-infrastructure-david-tucker/

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Our cities bring together all different types of people, they need to accommodate all different types of people, therefore adhering to one theory of design or driver e.g. capitalism is not going to meet the needs of many.

I wish I could remember the quote but someone said something like city shaping is not rocket science but harder. It is meeting the needs of diverse groups will always be difficult, however to start with that in mind has to be better for our society as a whole.

At the moment I am working in the area of social value, I love how it forces us to look beyond the immediate and find opportunities to build value for our communities It focused on many of the city shaping methodologies suggested in week four such as co-design and big data. I would suggest that we go beyond Flemings request of meeting the climate justice and meet environmental and social justice too.

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This week we continued to examine the making of a discipline.

We examine the challenges faced by cities following the rapid expansion of the 50s and 60s. Sorkin discusses Sert's 'hostile forces' being the City Beautiful approach which he likened to window dressing only, thereby ignoring the key challenges faced andd city planning which had evolved into such as 'scientific phenomena' that there was no art involved in our city shaping but bland repeatable spaces.

By now it was becoming obvious to city shapers that abandoning the city for the suburbs was not the answer. What really resonated with me was the critique of the discourse and the recognition 'we must be wary of all totalising schemes, especially those that propose universal formal solutions to complex social and environmental problems'.

Perhaps the earlier focus on one form of the city or design had led to some of the challenges the cities were facing. And of course if there was one solution our cities would be thriving. Another key takeaway was 'the fetish for the correct betrays to the core the urbanity evoked by Jane Jacobs'. Our cities are messy, chaotic and disjointed a reflection of the many types of people who come together, one size certainly doesn't fit all.

This fits with Harvey's comment based on Park's views that 'what kind of city cannot be divorced from the question of what kind of people we want to be, what kings of social relations we see, what relations to nature we cherish, what style of life we desire, what aesthetic values we hold. Through change such as civil rights movement and the fight or our cities we begin to see 'everyday urbanism' with an increasing focus on equity and more recently environmentalism.  A shift from the more pure capitalist city growth described by Harvey. The growth in a more participatory approach to town planning and urban design.

Ramirez builds on this through looking at how policy shapes our world with a close examination of 'Green New Deals' which aim to restore the balance of our city building to include social and environmental attributes.  Ramirez examines the ideas of rematriation and building on First Nations knowledge of our landscapes. The concepts of circular economy in our cities, the idea of building wealth for all. Ramirez examines Flemings request of designers to 'meet the challenges and broaden the climate justice movement.'

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Harvey, D (2013) Rebel Cities. From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. London.

Michelson, W. (2011) Influences of Sociology on Urban Design. In Routledge Companion toe Urban Design. Routledge

Ramirez, J. A. (2022) Designing Landscape: How Policies Shape the World. In AD Architectural Design: Green New Deal Landscapes 92, no. 1

Sorkin, M (2009) The End(s) of Urban Design edited by Krieger and Saunders. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press pp. 155-82

Talen, E (2012) Form-based codes vs. conventional zoning. In Companion to Urban Design, edited by Banerjee and Loukaitou-Sideris. Taylor & Francis Group.

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As already stated cities are as complex and messy as the people within them. Therefore I believe an understanding of sociology is valuable. The notion of possibilism that we can create conditions under which certain behaviour are possible is exciting and challenging for designers. What is important is that we are now in a much better position than ever before to gather big data and analyse how we move around and inhabit our cities, thereby providing stronger evidence for urban interventions.

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We are still trying to solve within our cities the problems of population growth, growth of the automobile and ensuring the human connection.

Our cities are organic, they grow and change, the reliance on a formula e.g. CIAM particularly without examining the human connection is dangerous.

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This week we examined the emergence of Urban Design as a discipline.

Birch examines this through five leadership groups. Precursors, founders, pioneers, developers and late evolvers. While much can be said about the difference in the approaches to urban design one of the key standouts for me was the problems and challenges that each of the designers was seeking to address, namely population growth, changes in mobility, amenity and human connection.

Some of the earliest designers, examined how their cities could grow. Cerda through his expansion of Barcelona which aimed to connect the medieval city with peripheral villages. Some of his key contributions  relate to the ideas of form and detail the relation ship between width and height and creating lot patters to support housing models. Haussman, is an example of early urban renewal. He looked at how he could engage with existing civic space and the impact large civic spaces and places could have on a city. Sitte took a more fluent approach to planning embracing irregularity. Like Cerda he began to examine the role of facades street and scale and the adoption of asethetic principles. Howard recognising the challenges of the growing city and the destruction of the countryside and looked towards what at the time could have been viewed as models of sustainable growth. They focused on controlled decentralisation creating residential neighbourhoods of medium density housing surrounded by 'green belt' lands, aiming for the best of both worlds - urban and rural.

While having been introduced earlier, post WW2 saw the emergence of the modernist movement and the 'functional city'. The Functional city sought to maximise efficiency, in the city and through building techniques and led to the development of highways and high rise. It could be argued the growth of the movement came due to a confluence of changes including need to rebuild war damaged cities and the emergence of the welfare state.

This was later challenged by Team 10 who countered the movement believing in that its strict rules were not supporting how society organises itself. It developed idea of organising around the house street, neighbourhood and city.

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The modernist movement is it a social experiment failure? I know it is easy to say with hindsight but I struggle to understand how this movement gained so much strength. I am sure it was a variety of reasons such as disillusionment with cities and places, new modern building techniques and the need for housing and dare I say it some excellent marketing. All exacerbated with the opening up of the international sharing of ideas.

Coming from the north of England I have experienced a number of these estates, and indeed lived on one, and have generally found them to be grim places, as you will be aware many of them have been pulled down.

I find it difficult that the movement was so focused on function yet seemed to understand so little about the communities they would serve and how they used the space.

While Team 10 did acknowledge the lack of human connection, there seems to have been little evidence that they made that connection.

I also find it fascinating that recognising that the modernist estates did not grow community connection that we have not learned from this and now have modern towers where the inhabitants report isolation. Its an interesting thought as to where a developers role starts and stops, most, but not all, I believe see it as building and getting out quickly.

The other thing that feels like maybe history repeating itself is the poor quality of many higher density buildings, I wonder if like the modernist buildings these too will soon be pulled down. The debate on strata title and the ability to action without 100% of owners continues in QLD however in other parts of Australia, the recognition of the need to act has led to reform in this area.

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Key stand outs in both Birch and Mumford are the increasing recognition of the social capital within our cities, how we organise ourselves and how we live work an play.

Bauer states 'We cannot plan neighbourhoods within a broad progressive civic philosophy without knowing as to what constitutes a good neighbourhood.' Jacobs work was so influential in this space and her recognition of learning by observation and the individual experience reminded me of the work undertaken by Gehl today. For me there is such a danger when as 'urban professionals' we believe we have the answers. Young and Willmots description of social capital is key.

Mumford discusses Sert and Le Corbusiers view that 'the natural frame of man had been destroyed and fallen short of facilitating human contact.' Mumford also discusses the recognition of the neighbourhood unit as having value, although recognises that social political factors sought to warp this view to embed racism and classism within our cities.

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One of the recurring things of this weeks reading was the role of the disciplines in shaping our city. Avaermaete and Gosseye discuss Serda's theory of city building and the challenges with architects planning for buildings and and engineers planning streets. Stella in my group advised that the reason she was taking this course is to learn more about the context of the buildings she designs in her architecture course against the city streetscape and function.

Different natures of cities are discussed from the functional and mechanical cities to Sitte's Stadtebau which was the antitheses of this and looking for recognition of the evolution of traditional cities  with crooked streets and recognition of the environment such as natural topography.

Mumfords ideas of anchoring architecture and urban design with cultural and economic and political complexities to make them organic and personal resonated. Ignoring any of these items is a disservice to the city.

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Shane examined what is a city. To me a city has a higher density of uses, relies on specialisms and division of industry, is likely to contain key urban institutions. Social stratification occurs within out cities perhaps to a greater extent than our rural areas.  Our cities act as attractors and have strong relationships with the surrounds and other cities.

Shane draws on Lynch's discussion of the the city of faith, the machine for living and the ecological city. In our discussions we touched on what type of city is Brisbane. My view is that it currently operates as a machine for living creating wealth for the State albeit not in a traditional industrial sense. This is further demonstrated by the challenges for the city when a vital piece of the machine, in this case infrastructure, fails and the impacts it has on the city. However there was a feeling that Coronavirus and Climate Change have initiated a transition to a more organic city, with a focus on local living services and awareness of our natural environment reinventing it into our cities through green buildings and roofs, urban gardens and a focus on biomimicry.

Key things that stood out for me in Shane's reading was Lynch's comment about disappearing city readability as uses expanded with the automobile and the increasing scale of industry. For me this resonated with the lack of human scale in our cities and the separation of uses.

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Avermaete T. and Gosseye, J (2021).  Urban Desing in the Twentieth Century: Histories and Pedigrees of a Cross-Cultural Field.

Birch, E.L (2011).  From CIAM to CNU: the roots and thinkers of modern urban design. In Companion to Urban Design edited by Banerjee and Loukaitou-Sideris. Routledge.

Mumford, E (2009) The Emergence of Urban Design in the Breakup of CIAM. In Urban Design edited by Krieger and Sanders. University of Minnesota Press.

Shane, D.G (2005) Recombinant Urbanism; Conceptual Modelling in Architecture, Urban Design and City Theory. Chap 1, Wiley and Sons

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Urban design has to function within the world of politics this has at times enhanced the role of urban design but means that designers are often still beholden to their political masters.

While urban design is certainly gaining strength as a discipline it still has challenges.

Urban design awards are one way in which good design can be promoted and used to educate. Judging design awards remains highly subjective.

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One of the key things I took from the lectures was the political nature of nature of urban design. Malcolm Middleton discussed this in the context of the QLD awards surviving for five years; whilst the timeframes shared by Susan Holden showed the ebbs and flows in the development and celebration of urban design based on political will.

86-96 growth in urban design with the establishment of urban design and inaugural Australian awards for Urban Design and the Prime Ministers Taskforce

97-04 (and beyond) the establishment of what will ultimately become what is known as Australian Urban Design become established. Does this act as a national leadership of urban design?

04 Year of the Built Environment

09 Creating Places for People Urban Design Protocol - last Federal protocol

Increase in State involvement

00-12 - Incremental establishment of State government architect roles as advisors

10-20 - Establishment of Design Review Panels

This doesn't surprise me, it is evident in any municipal planning department. However I was surprised to see the level of involvement at the Federal level, as they have generally been absent in their involvement in the planning context. Howe's comment that the Federal government can be accused of  'spatially blind' to their policy.

This perhaps relates to Susan's comment about is urban design still a weak discipline. In my view, and I will preface this by saying this is unfortunate, as a 'social science' like planning urbanists often struggle to 'be heard' when compared to their counterparts such as transport engineers. I believe to a large extent we are still at the whim of our political masters and while establishment of State architects and design review panels somewhat counteract this there is still a way to go.

Susan also asked are the turf wars between the disciplines over? In my experience not fully. I have worked in teams, largely within government, where urban designers and planners for example work hand in hand. However I have also worked in settings where there is a lack of knowledge on both parts of roles and responsibilities with both disciplines believing they 'design the cities'. This does not support strength in either discipline or the creation of great places.

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Across the Australian Urban Design Awards, Queensland Urban Design Awards and the Gold Coast Urban Design Awards there are some recurring themes as to why the programmes have been established:

recognise high quality contemporary projects

encourage best practice in all projects

educate the broader community, as to the value of urban design.

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Holden and Middleton discussed the somewhat subjective nature of judging awards. Middleton in his lecture to UDAD 7014 alluded to the fact that while QDESIGN forms a basis for the judgement, it is the interrogation and discussion between professionals that leads to the determination.

Holden also notes the challenges in judging urban design awards noting they are 'judged by experts who with an eye to the judging criteria'. Holden goes on to recognise Quarry who determines they are not always criteria and that it is through judgement and experience decisions are made.

This is one of the challenges of the social sciences and Verners comment detailed in Holden rings very true.
'Urban design’s positioning between science and design suggests preference for “low theory” over “high theory.” Low theory is contingent, nuanced and incomplete and has a precarious relationship with its subject-matter. High theory covets certitude and law-like propositions and ends up reducing its subject matter so that it is devoid of emotive content.'

Both Holden and Middleton recognise the jury room discussion and site visits as the key to determining excellence. Middleton noted that it was often when one got on site the magic of what had been achieved could be seen.

Holden makes an important note about the 'people's choice' in the Gold Coast awards noting that they are often in sync with the judges and whether this relates to the education piece which is an objective of the awards or whether the projects are truly in sync with community perceptions is unclear. In my experience I often find award winning projects to be polarising e.g. Howard Smith Wharves are either loved or hated. While many love the reclaimed space others feel that the space is not truly for the community.

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QDESIGN expresses Queensland's response to good urban design. It is based on the following design principles:

a common and consistent language of urban design quality

a State-wide resource to guide the development of outcomes

a reference point to align thinking and clarify expectations between all parties involved in the design and delivery of development

Support the delivery of State, Regional and Local Planning Policy objectives and reflect established guidance documents

Establish parameters against which the quality of development proposals can be acknowledged and celebrated.

Key to achievement of excellence in urban design are three  steps.

1. work within the context of the place by understanding and embaracing the character, community values and climate

2. places are great places to live through ensuring a mix of uses to support local living services which are well connected and have appropriate levels of infrastructure including social and green and blue infrastructure

3. demonstration of leadership through innovation and collaboration through interdisciplinary culture and engagement.

Due to the vastness of Queensland and the differing climate we are seeing the growth in urban design guidelines such as the Sunshine Coast Design Strategy and Book, Brisbane's A Design Led City.

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To create strong and successful cities we need a multi-disciplinary approach that walks hand in hand with the community.

Urban design bridges the gap between planning and architecture, however modern plan making must be a partnership between planners and urban designers.

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Australian Urban Design Awards retrieved from urbandesignawards.com.au, accessed 13.03.21

Holden, G. (2013) “What, if anything, can be made of the Gold Coast Urban Design Awards?” in Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand: 30, Open, edited by Alexandra Brown and Andrew Leach (Gold Coast, Qld: SAHANZ, 2013), vol. 1, p 389-403

Middleton, M. (2021) Ministers Award for Urban Design 2017-2021. Queensland Government.

Queensland Government (2018) QDESIGN - Queensland Urban Design Principles. State of Queensland

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AUSTRALIAN URBAN DESIGN AWARDS CEREMONY Thursday, 15 October 2020 AEDT (ACT, NSW, VIC, TAS): 5pm - 6pm AEST (QLD): 4pm - 5pm ACDT (SA): 4.30pm - 5:30pm ACST (NT): 3.30pm - 4:30pm AWST (WA): 2pm - 3pm REGISTER HERE

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Shane, D.G. (2011) Urban Design since 1945 - A Global Perspective. John Wiley & Sons.

Shane introduces the history of urban design from its inception as solving the challenges faced by a Europe in turmoil following WW2 to the current day. He traces the interlinkages between the economic growth and decline of cities across the world and the growth of the megacity.

Shane introduces three elements he believes are important in describing our cities. The enclave a bounded space e.g. a plaza. The armature, the networks, typically streets that connect the enclaves. The heterotopia, an enclave with multiple interior divisions that may have conflicting land uses within it.

Krieger, A. and Saunders, W. S. (2009) Urban Design. University of Minnesota Press.

Krieger and Saunders also introduce the history of urban design. They discuss the ten spheres of urbanistic action that urban designers work in. They discuss the role of urban design as a bridge between planning and architecture.

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"one may rejoice that there are many spheres of urbanistic action for those who are passionate lovers of cities."
Krieger, Alex and William S. Saunders (2009) Urban Design. University of Minnesota Press

I love the quote above for while there are so many people passionate about place there is hope for our cities.

As an urban planner, Sert's idea of urban design bridging the  widening split between the 'art of building' and 'systematic nature of planning' resonated with me. As did the statement by Krieger that it is 'presumptuous for any one person to claim overarching knowledge' of the design of the city'.

There remains an inherent tension even in today's workplaces about the role of urban design and who does it. My personal view is that good urban design requires a multi-disciplinary approach - architects, urban designers, planners, transport planners, economists, engagement practioners, sustainability consultants and placemakers. This is recognised by Krieger as he focusses on the infrastructure of the city and community advocacy - doing no harm.  Of course good urban design involves the community. This does not take away from the very definite skills of the urban designer in identifying the form of the spaces and places we live, work and play.

I agree with Krieger that plan making should be an interactive process between urban designers and planners, that planners do not have all the answers - to quote a colleague 'you see things I don't see'.

I smiled at the comment if "architecture and urban design are hellbent on producing visions of tomorrow planners need to determine the need and rational process." I often find myself explaining to colleagues the requirements for the city as determined by policy and the planning scheme - which in theory at least is supposed to be the community's expression of their desires for the city. However there is no doubt that urban design is considered the friendlier profession and this is perhaps reflected in the decline in planning students and the increase in urban design students.

So why am I studying urban design to:

1. better understand the role of the urban designer

2. understand the strengths and weaknesses of urban design

3. improve my engagement with urban design colleagues

4. improve my skills in the art of city design

5. ensure that land use plans prepared result in high quality urban places.

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The dichotomy maintaining the urban form of the traditional against creating 'new places' to improve the current urban form. Particularly as as Krieger points out 90% of development takes pace at the edge of existing cities. Where the community may want 'lite urbanism' as described by Koohaas.

One of the challenges for our cities either infill or greenfield is ensuring that urban design projects benefit the whole of the city. Redevelopment of key areas often leads to 'enclaves' as described by Shane. While these spaces are highly sought out by the community, the benefits of these spaces do not radiate out, or if they do result in gentrification of the space and its surrounds and therefore do not benefit the whole of society.

Besides form base code how do we ensure urban design benefits the whole of the city how do we ensure as described by Janice Perlman that the invisible parts of the city are seen and catered for - how do we ensure success in the in-between spaces.

How do we ensure that in the megacity and fragmented metropolis we maintain that community connection that creates developments that the community want - as Jane Jacobs states how do we maintain the bottom up approach to planning and designing our cities.

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As stated this in itself is one of the drivers for me to study urban design. There is no doubt that traditional zoning practices no longer serve our cities. In fact the separation of uses, along with the automobile, has led to urban sprawl and lowering of the standard of living for many.

If we examine the traditional cities such as Paris, Barcelona it is the mix of uses that support the success of the city - the 20 minute neighbourhood - what's old becomes new again.

The challenge for planners and urban designers is agreeing on what is 'good urbanism' and how do we codify this to create good public policy. How do we find the balance between 'health, safety and welfare' and 'more formal and aesthetic judgements' - without leading to unaffordable outcomes or homogenous cities.

Also how do we ensure the outcomes sought are achievable through legislation and planning schemes and not able to be diluted due to the argument over what is good urban design.

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Krieger, A. and Saunders, W. S. (2009) Urban Design. University of Minnesota Press.

Shane, D.G (2011) Urban Design since 1945 - A Global Perspective. John Wiley & Sons.

What is urban design? David Lewis Explains. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfAJNuG4frU, accessed 13.03.21

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What is Urban Design? David Lewis Explains