Design - Social
As with the economic impact, high quality design can lead to improvements in the performance of the building in social terms. These impacts are difficult to quantify, but are generally synonymous with the economic issues, such as improved satisfaction, productivity, health and safety. Constructing Excellence is a trailblazer organisation in facilitating the uptake of the DQI.
Use the DQI to engage everyone in the design process.
The Design Quality Indicator (DQI) has been developed to help all stakeholders in the built environment to gain more value from the design of buildings, and to assist in improving the quality of buildings. Much value can be gained by involving end users closely in the design stage, and the DQI provides a template for doing so. Basketball hall at Jesse Boot
The Jesse Boot Basketball and Dance Centre in Nottingham, provides an example of how engaging users in design through the DQI adds value. The design development took 12 months and flooring was a key issue.
It was agreed with users that high quality flooring would provide a better sporting experience, which in turn would create better performance. The results of this investment are two fold: the dance studio has tripled its business and the sports hall is now the recognised location for all major sporting events in the region. The DQI score shows the build quality gained maximum marks and social integration scored very highly.
There are other ways to involve users in design. Southern Housing Group's 'Millennium Plus at the Nightingale' project (demonstration number 1001) features a number of pre-assembled components which were integrated with a concrete based tunnelform structure to improve the built quality. Residents from the Estate Development Committee contributed to the design and layout of the homes, working closely with the developer and the design team. A group of residents, together with other representatives from the project team visited construction sites as well as completed homes that were built using these technologies before they gave their approval for the Nightingale scheme. For the variety of choices provided to tenants in areas such as internal layouts, colour schemes of finishes and type of kitchen units the project was awarded the 2001 Building Homes Award in the 'Best Options and Choices' category.
A £100,000 social investment development fund under resident control has been financed jointly by Southern Housing Group's charitable arm (Southern Housing Foundation) and the builders (Countryside in Partnership). The project aimed to provide jobs too, with a target to recruit 30% of the construction workforce locally and by helping to improve residents' work skills through traineeships and NVQ training courses.
The key quality improvements of the scheme which have a significant impact on the long-term sustainability of the scheme are in the areas of space provision and sound and thermal insulation standards. The tunnelform concrete structure meant that the roof structure could be constructed with panels rather than the traditional trusses, offering extra space (5-50% in excess of Parker Morris standards). The wall and ceiling construction exceed the new Building Regulations Part E (2003) for airborne and impact sound insulation quite significantly. Good thermal insulation levels, combined with the provision of efficient heating systems led to an average SAP level of 97, thus keeping the running cost for residents to a minimum.