The value of good design How buildings and spaces create economic and social value cabe The value of good design: public perception Introduction In a MORI poll commissioned by People work more This short document has a very simple • A well designed school will improve the Victorian age. Get it wrong and we CABE in the summer of 2002, an aim. It draws together key research the educational achievement of its will have dysfunctional, under-utilised overwhelming 81% of people said productively in well from the UK and abroad to show that pupils and unloved buildings in every part of they are ‘interested in how the built investment in good design generates the country. The stakes are high but we designed offices A well designed department store environment looks and feels’, with economic and social value. Collectively • will succeed provided we abide by three will have a direct impact on stock over a third saying they are ‘very Agree 77% the studies provide evidence of the key principles: turnover interested’ and another third wanting Disagree 7% value of design in the areas of: more of a say in the design of buildings • A well designed neighbourhood • Good design does not cost more and spaces. 85% of people agreed • Healthcare will benefit from lower crime and when measured across the lifetime with the statement ‘better quality Well designed schools • Educational environments higher house values of the building or place buildings and public spaces improve Housing • Good design flows from the the quality of people’s lives’ and improve children’s Civic pride and We cannot afford not to invest in • • employment of skilled and multi- thought that the quality of the built cultural activity good design. Good design is not just education disciplinary teams environment made a difference to • Business about the aesthetic improvement of the way they felt. Agree 70% • Crime prevention our environment, it is as much about • The starting point of good design improved quality of life, equality of is client commitment The figures on the right summarise Disagree 17% All of the examples listed prove that opportunity and economic growth. some of the findings of the survey. design matters because our lives are If we want to be a successful and CABE is here to help. We are working They show that the majority of people connected through our common built sustainable society we have to in partnership with organisations in all consider well designed buildings and The design of hospitals environment. Across all sectors and overcome our ignorance about the sectors, the major built environment spaces as positive influences on the makes no difference to building types the message is the same importance of design and depart from industries, and project teams quality of daily life, professional – when we invest in the built our culturally-ingrained notion that a throughout the country to ensure that productivity, educational attainment, how fast patients recover environment, we must consider the poor quality environment is the norm the lessons set out in this publication physical well-being, levels of crime Agree 29% impact of design throughout the lifetime and all we can expect from British are disseminated widely. Across the and house values. Disagree 52% of the buildings, on the places in which builders, developers, planners and board we are determined to make the they are located and on all stakeholders politicians. case for investment in good design ever involved. The vast majority of a more compelling, knowing that we will How streets look and building’s costs and benefits can be Over the next five years, we are going all benefit as a result. CABE, with its expressed in terms of the impact upon to experience the largest public partners is aiming to address this. feel makes no real its occupiers, users and passers by. investment programme in new Most of all, we want to add to this difference to crime buildings for a generation. Get it right evidence. If you have spent time and • A well designed hospital will help and we will have a legacy of civic effort measuring the impact of design Agree 22% patients get better more quickly buildings to match or even surpass investment, please let us know. Disagree 66% Well designed houses will increase in value quicker than average Agree 72% Disagree 9% Source: MORI/CABE, 2002 Sir Stuart Lipton, Chairman, CABE A. The value of design in healthcare A1. A study by Sheffield University A4. Research by the National Institute A6. A study carried out by the for NHS Estates compared patient for Health and the National Institute on University of Nottingham which outcomes in a newly refurbished Ageing in the US showed that certain compared three healthcare orthopaedic unit at Poole hospital with design features in Special Care Units environments before and after they those in a 1960s conventional ward. and Assisted Living Treatment were redesigned found clear benefits The study found that patients treated Residences for people with Alzheimer’s to patient health and associated on the refurbished ward required less disease and related dementias made improvements in the efficiency of analgesic medication than those on the people calmer whilst certain others medical resourcing due to good design. older ward. Patients not undergoing generated more agitated behaviour. The schemes included a cardiology operations were discharged significantly For example, unobtrusive and secure ward with improved lighting, better more quickly from the newer ward – exits reduced paranoid delusions, and external views and clustering of beds after 6.4 days compared with 8.1 days. increased bedroom privacy and better in smaller groups; a waiting area with through routes in common areas enhanced artificial lighting, better A2. The Sheffield study also compared reduced both verbal and physical seating and interior design; and a psychiatric patients treated at Mill View agitation and aggression. The study coronary day-care unit with better beds Hospital, a purpose-built unit in Hove, concluded that the benefits of these and patient facilities, larger windows with those at two older wards at design features on health and quality and a visitors area. The new ward was Freshfield Mental Health Unit within of life are independent of the quality perceived by patients and staff as more Brighton Medical Hospital, located in a of other care characteristics. pleasant, relaxing and welcoming. It former Victorian workhouse. The length resulted in lower pulse rates and blood of stay was again lower on the new A5. A study in a suburban pressure readings amongst patients, unit. Patients treated entirely in the new Pennsylvania hospital examined the shorter post-operative stays – 8 days building had an average reduction of records of patients recovering from down from 11 days – and lower 14% in their length of stay – 36.5 days cholecystectomy. It compared patients prescribed drug intakes. compared with 42.4 days. In the same whose rooms had windows overlooking new unit at Mill View Hospital 79% of natural landscapes with patients who the patients were judged by staff to looked out onto a brick wall, and found have made good progress (compared that the patients with open views: to 60% in the old unit), and the level of had shorter post-operative stays – verbal outbursts and threatening • 7.9 days compared with 8.7 days behaviour was reduced by 24% and 42% respectively. • had fewer negative evaluation comments from nurses A3. A King’s Fund document published in 2002 highlighted the example • took fewer strong and moderate of Newham Hospital in south east analgesic doses London, where levels of staff morale had lower rates of minor post- increased by 56% following the • surgical complications redesign of the hospital. When asked if they felt valued, 78% of staff said ‘yes’ after the redesign compared to 22% three years previously. 1 Courtyard of Pulross 4 GP Surgery, 1 Centre, Brixton Hammersmith, Guy Penoyre & Prasad Greenfield Architects 2 Interior corridor and 5 Courtyard ACAD Centre, 2 3 staircase ACAD Centre, Central Middlesex Central Middlesex Hospital Avanti Hospital Avanti Architects 4 Architects 6 Public art in Chelsea 3 GP Surgery, Croydon and Westminster Hospital, AHMM Architects London 5 6 B. The value of design in educational environments B1. A study carried out in 2000 by success rate was 84%, compared to three school districts in the US. PricewaterhouseCoopers for the the national average of 78%, the rate Controlling for other variables, it found Department for Education and Skills of progression from tenth grade to that students with the most natural day examined the relationship between baccalauréat was 73% compared to lighting in their classrooms progressed capital investment in schools and pupil the national average of only 57% and 20% faster on maths tests and 26% performance. It found that capital the number of enrolment applications on reading tests in one year than those investment in school buildings had from private school pupils has steeply with the least natural light. the strongest influence on staff morale, risen – 17.4% of the students aged B8. Research carried out at the pupil motivation and effective learning 15–16 now come from these schools. School Design and Planning Laboratory, time. The study highlighted one school B4. A series of American studies on the University of Georgia, found that where the design of playgrounds and relationship between pupil performance, elementary schools with more than the school hall had enabled a reduction achievement, behaviour and the built 100 square feet of building space per of lunchtime assistants from 8 to 5, with environment found that scores for the student tend to have significantly higher the saved resources switched to direct Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills science, social studies and overall Iowa educational expenditure.