ABSTRACT

Architecture is essentially a holistic activity. Breaking it down into increments of value goes against its very grain unless done with great care. Instrumental value lends itself to expression through numbers while 'intrinsic aspects of experience are best evaluated qualitatively, or with a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods'. This chapter discusses the growth of audit culture, focusing on the UK, before examining the ways in which its tendrils have extended into architecture and the wider built environment. It focuses on how the value of architects might be evidenced. The advent of the Social Value Act 2012, which requires buildings that are procured with public money to be of demonstrable social value, was an initiative for which architects were notably unprepared. Architecture is a relatively small sector in which the majority of people work in extremely small firms. Many architects are sceptical about the need for research to prove what they feel to be 'common sense'.