Good, well thought out design produces value. Whether it is in the technology, the products or the built environment we use. For this reason it is important to highlight how professional designers can add value, and the RIBA have recently done that for Architects in Good Design: it all adds up.

If you were to imaging the timeline of a building, and overlay its economic costs over its lifetime, you would see a major investment before its construction. The design stage takes up a small amount of this investment, but the decisions made at this stage have a direct effect on the lifetime of the building and additional costs further down the line.

The majority of the building's value is added here, and we can look at the value from a number of angles. The cost and monitory value, social and environmental value, and the aesthetic and contextual value. All of these are decided at the design stage before the first brick is laid.

The exercise of design requires foresight, seeing how the building will be used, by whom, for what purpose, and how it will work. When you think about the values of a space, these all need to be considered.

The aesthetic value takes into account the buildings impact and immediacy within a context. However, understanding a design's aesthetic legacy should be taken into account; how will the building mature? Much like landscape architects who can tell you what their design will look like in 50 years. It is the foresight used by landscape architects, gardeners or land owners when planting a boulevard of trees. They know they won't see the true beauty of their design. However, they know that one day the aesthetic value of the row of trees will be there for all to see. It is this selfless approach that benefits all design.

The environmental value of the design considers the footprint of the building, and tries to minimise the impact the construction will have. Over a building's lifetime it could add value to the environment by producing energy itself, recycling it waste or even by creating habitats for local wildlife.

Meanwhile economic value in the design can be achieved through the flexibility of the design, especially on commercial projects. Will the space be able to be used by a number of different occupants with different needs over a number of decades, and are the services able to be maintained or updated as new technologies become available?

While social value in architecture is more difficult to measure compared to economic value, the question is whether the design can give something to the people around it. After all the built environment is everyone's to enjoy or endure.

All of these values are considered during the design stage, and this is the value of design. So when a building blossoms in 50 years time it is as a direct result of those months and years prior to its construction, and the value inherent in the building from the design work that went into constructing it.

The full RIBA report "Good Design - it all adds up" can be found at http://alturl.com/jttyn