How is social value created, defined and measured in both placemaking (urban design, architecture and real estate) and construction (procurement and labour) processes?

Social value has an important role to play in the delivery of the SDGs. A rebalancing of value to include social and environmental value, as well as economic and commercial value, is needed to ensure the shaping of communities and places will have wellbeing outcomes. This special issue explores current and potential approaches to defining, delivering, monitoring and evaluating social value in the built environment, its benefits and consequences and its relation to other existing policy mechanisms. 

Guest editors: Flora Samuel and Kelly Watson

The concept of social value has gained significant prominence in recent years in some countries, yet remains misunderstood. There is a recognised need for it to be better defined, interpreted and embedded in planning, design and operation. This will entail measurement and assessment. Social value is increasingly being considered alongside issues of quality of life and wellbeing, to both the individual and the community, but it remains challenging to reconcile social value in a meaningful way with the present value management approaches that dominate the construction and real estate industries.

This special issue brings together a series of contributions to current thinking and critical discussion on social value, including empirical research from across the UK, Europe and Australia. How can planners, clients, designers create and evaluate social value at different scales?  How can local stakeholders (communities) be involved and empowered? How can the intended outcomes be assured? Collectively, the papers in this special issue point to new practices for the planning, design, construction and operation of projects. A series of gaps are also identified in social value research, most notably a discussion of social value in the context of real estate, valuation and 'environmental, social and corporate governance' (ESG).

Table of contents

Social value of the built environment [editorial]
F. Samuel & K. Watson

Politics of social value in the built environment
M.S. Çıdık

Added value and numerical measurement of social value: a critical enquiry
A. Raiden & A. King

Improving social value through facilities management: Swedish housing companies
D. Troje

Assessing social value in housing design: contributions of the capability approach
J.-C. Dissart & L. Ricaurte

Wellbeing fostered by design: a framework for evaluating indoor environment performance
J. Croffi, D. Kroll, V. Soebarto, H. Barrie & K. McDougall

The social value of public spaces in mixed-use high-rise buildings
H. Barrie, K. McDougall, K. Miller & D. Faulkner

Social values and social infrastructures: a multi-perspective approach to place
A. Legeby & C. Pech

Assessing the social values of historic shopping arcades: building biographies
A. Skoura & A. Madden

Feedback on the special issue

Social value: an architect's perspective
Edward Ng