P+HS Architects Launch Design Toolkit

P+HS Architects Launch Design Toolkit

Following the launch of P+HS Architects' Social Impact Strategy last week, as we continue through March, we will be celebrating the various elements that sit behind the strategy. This week we are concentrating on the ‘Place’ pillar and the steps we’re implementing across the practice to empower our staff and the clients we serve in considering and embedding social impact within projects.

Our 40-year reflection highlighted the important and unique position architectural practices have in crafting accessible spaces that enhance, engage and empower the communities they serve. As part of our journey in formalising our Social Impact Strategy we have developed our Social Impact Design Toolkit. The toolkit provides a resource designed to assist us, our clients and local communities in creating and enhancing social value within projects, initiatives, or processes, emphasising the ‘Place’ element of our three pillars: Practice, Place and People. The launch of our Social Impact Design Toolkit is timely given the RIBA’s recent publication of the Engagement and Inclusive Design overlays to the Plan of Work earlier this year, both of which build on the Social Value Toolkit issued by the RIBA and University of Reading in 2020.

As architects we are increasingly required to demonstrate and measure both qualitatively and financially the direct long-term impact of design decisions on people and communities. Within our Toolkit we break these qualitative elements per RIBA stage against our five impact areas:

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Employment and Skills; Health and Wellbeing; Responsible Procurement; Social Cohesion and Identity.

Given the socially valuable nature of the sectors that we serve, social impact has always been integral to our design processes. The development of the toolkit has given us the opportunity to delve into design decisions, measuring results so that we can reflect on outcomes following the project completion. This allows us to build on our values of progression and ambition as well continue to develop innovative solutions to give our client best value. Reflecting on the success of such initiatives and recording their real-world impact ensures that we can showcase best practice to all our clients, ultimately allowing us to enhance lives and produce outstanding architecture that delivers on the specific requirements of our clients.

P+HS Architects have a long-established track record of offering effective stakeholder engagement as part of delivering outstanding architecture for the communities and people we serve. Through the vast experience of our staff, we take pride in our reputation as a leading architectural practice with a desire to go above and beyond client expectations. We see new projects as an opportunity to challenge ourselves, provide the best product to end users, build lasting client relationships, and add social value. As we learn, we share knowledge, and this adds to the wealth of collective experience within the team.

Commenting on the launch of our Social Impact Design Toolkit, P+HS Design Lead Patrick Kelly said:

"Our Social Impact Design Toolkit allows us to analyse, measure and quantify a project’s progression set against identified impact areas, ensuring that we consider and address the key values associated with creating socially aware environments.

There are many challenges that each project faces through its design and construction journey and the implementation of this toolkit within schemes will allow us to highlight those principles that sit at the heart of each project brief to provide a successful design that enhances the lives of our clients and the communities they serve.”