Social value and visitor experience in cultural buildings

by Duncan Campbell, Executive Director UK, and Gustavo Brunelli, Director of Sustainability and Environmental Design

Cultural buildings are civic assets that build community cohesion. For patrons, establishing social value is vital. The design challenge is to invite people in while protecting collections and meeting precise curatorial needs. Access and stewardship work together when generous, legible public spaces welcome people in while zoning, buffering and careful environmental control keep collections safe and stable.

Museums are under pressure to open up — to become transparent, interactive, and welcoming. Yet the collections they house demand precise environmental control and careful curation. Reconciling these imperatives is one of the most challenging — and exciting — aspects of cultural design today.

At the Perth Museum, we created spaces that felt open and democratic while still meeting stringent curatorial standards. Smart glazing, adaptive ventilation, discreet services, and careful circulation design allowed us to support curatorial needs without compromising public experience. The result was a building that both welcomed its community and safeguarded its treasures.

This kind of work demonstrates that accessibility and stewardship are not opposites. They can reinforce one another when engineered creatively. For cultural institutions, this is key to remaining relevant and respected in the 21st century.

Museums should not have to choose between openness and protection. The best can — and must — do both.

Delivering social value through good sustainable design
Cultural buildings are not just repositories of knowledge or art; they are civic assets. Their design has the power to deliver social value through education, inclusion, and community pride.

At Tower Hamlets Town Hall, we worked with stakeholders to ensure that design decisions supported local identity, accessibility, and opportunity. From creating jobs and training to ensuring the environments we created were welcoming and inclusive, we embedded social value into every aspect of the project. The building gave back as much as it received.

This approach matters because cultural projects legitimacy depends on serving the communities that sustain them. When design prioritises social value, it amplifies the role of culture as a shared resource.

Good design is measured not just by its form or performance, but by the lives it touches. This is a measure of true sustainability.