The Beacon of Light, a unique sports, community and education facility, opened its doors over 3 years ago. Since then, the building has provided a vibrant and feel-good environment for people to meet socially, gain skills and be inspired by sport. But what effect has the architecture itself had?
Many of the buildings and places we design provide an inherent social value to local communities through the nature of their brief, facilities and the organisations involved. This is certainly the case for the Beacon – the project is a not-for-profit multi-use community hub, made possible thanks to charitable donations and grant assistance – and the Foundation of Light predicts £73m worth of social return-on-investment.
For us, this raises the question: to what extent has our design provided social value? Can this be quantified? With the foundation, their staff and users we have been monitoring the buildings to explore these questions with a focused survey. We asked about how the building affects their sense of happiness, activity, wellbeing, safety and engagement with others, but also how it supports community needs.