Design Value: What does it mean and how do we measure it?

Project summary:

The ‘value’ of well-designed homes and neighbourhoods is increasingly foregrounded in UK government policy on planning and place-making as a route to achieving more sustainable and healthy communities. In light of this, this evidence review has two core aims to:

  1. explore the ways in which ‘design value’ is defined in both the academic and non-academic literature
  2. identify existing methods of measuring ‘design value’.

The review places a focused lens on design in the housing sector and examines sources that consider the value of design at the neighbourhood level. The review seeks to provide an evidence base for understanding how the terminology associated with ‘design value’ is currently used and applied in both the scholarly and policy/practice literature. It will inform the design and place agenda within the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence and contribute to the wider discourse on delivering well-designed places in the UK.

Timeline: December 2017 – November 2018

Team: Professor Flora Samuel (Co-I), Tom Kenny (Co-I), Dr James White (Co-I), Dr Bilge Serin (RA) and Dr Chris Foye (KE)

Theme: Place

View the final report: