But many-a-times we come across projects that claim to be a socially responsible, when the on-ground reality paints a different story. So how do we determine if a design has impacted positively and how much? While it is difficult to pin point what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ design, there are several approaches and methods being put forth to measure social value.

The Social Value Toolkit (SVT) for Architecture has been developed under RIBA to make it simple to demonstrate and evaluate the impact of design on people and communities. Drawing from an extensive review of well-being literature, the SVT asserts that architecture's social value lies in fostering positive emotions, whether through nature connections or enabling active lifestyles. It also emphasizes connections between people and the environment in appropriate ways, as well as the provision of freedom and flexibility for diverse lifestyles (autonomy).

IDEO introduced the HCD Toolkit in 2009, a first-of-its-kind book that laid out how and why human-centered design can impact the social sector. In April 2015, IDEO.org launched HCD Toolkit the Field Guide to Human-Centered Design, an evolved version of the toolkit.  This comprehensive guide comes with 57 design methods, the key mindsets that underpin how and why IDEO.org believes design can change lives, a full slate of worksheets, and case studies from projects that show human-centered design in action.

Though not an evaluation matrix, the Collective Action Toolkit (CAT) is a set of activities and methods that enable groups of people anywhere to organise collaborate and create solutions for problems affecting their community. Eolving out of frog’s 2011 and 2012 fieldwork in Kenya, Ethiopia and Bangladesh with the Nike Foundation, it was a response to the need for a universal framework that empowers communities of all shapes and sizes to find and design solutions to any problem, any time.

In a world where design's impact resonates far beyond aesthetics, these methodologies offer a compass to navigate the intricate landscape of social value measurement, ensuring that architecture's influence is truly transformative and positively enduring.

In a situation similar to this, a client approached the Abin design studio based in Kolkata, to design a ground level garage structure with staff quarters above, in a parcel of land opposite his residence. Perceiving far greater potential in the program, given the strategic location of the site with the adjoining street, the architect convinced the client to broaden the vision for the structure as a building that gives back to the community. The Gallery house is now a porous building that acts as a multipurpose community space with a portion of the ground used as parking for the client. The building becomes one with the street with its large arched openings, inviting pedestrians with its beckoning staircase, to enter and engage. Crafted with discarded industrial clay bricks, the aesthetic garners nostalgia of the terracotta temples of Bengal and fuses it with contemporary form. Had it not been for the vision of the architect and the patronage of the client, the building would have remained myopic as opposed to limitless, which it is now. 

The Jetavan project, a community centre in Maharashtra by Sameep Padora Architects demonstrates the potential of collaboration in contemporary practices. Co-executed with Hunnarshala foundation, the project was a joint production- one that enhanced individual strengths and pooled in multiple perspectives to challenge the project brief. Jetavan centre’s blurring thresholds of built and unbuilt, its non-directional circulation, liberating butterfly roofs with soft light streaming in, courtyards that spark dialogue and community interaction, delicate details of craftsmanship, and most of all the dialogue-driven approach together create an elevated spatial experience. 

Scale does not matter when it comes to social impact. Small interventions can also go a long way in taking the first step towards positive change. Architect Rajeshri Teli of Fractal Chaos Design Studio, a young practice based in Maharashtra, was approached with the brief of revitalising a temple complex in Kapardikeshwar in Otur, Karnataka. Working around constraints of budget, the architect designed the entire project based on the articulation of one simple element - the boundary wall. This wall, like an evolving organism, takes on various forms to serve different functions like seating spaces, low height planters, an informal amphitheatre, a guiding device for movement, etc, that together changed the nature of the peripheral space. The outcome transformed the temple complex to make it a vibrant community gathering area valued by the villagers. Innovating around constraints with just one element, a wall, elevated the brief. 

From a wall to a deconstructed worm, modular shelves meander their way through the gardens of the CSMVS Museum, Mumbai. The units contain colourful books and one sees children engrossed in reading on a structure that interchanges form from shelves to seats. The Bookworm pavilion designed by Nuru Karim Design Studio (NUDES) was an out-of-the-box interpretation of a children’s library. Made as a deployable structure assembled with 3600 modular wooden planks, the pavilion was fabricated off-shore and deployed on-site in a week’s time. The pavilion shows that design can transform user behaviour, in that it succeeded in attracting children towards books in fun and engaging ways.

Projects that have the courage to challenge the minimum requisites of the client brief, that read into its latent potential and unlock an intent deeper than what was originally conceived, are the ones that are able to create impact through their vision. Understandably, there will be challenges along the way, but constraints can be turned to opportunities with innovation. From an urban intervention to a community centre, a wall, pavilion  or even a product, the processes are what set the outcome apart, and when these processes are driven with passion and tenacity, they go well beyond the brief to create ripples of societal change.