There is an oft-held perception that fees paid to design professionals might be better spent on "getting more building". Let me explain why I think that the best way to get more building is to spend time and money on a thorough, professionally managed design process. Let me give you five specific ways in which design adds to a building’s value.

First and foremost good design means getting more activity into less building space.

This means getting clear about functional requirements and priorities.

With a clarity of need, it is quite possible to reduce the size, and therefore cost, of a proposed new building by 15% to 20% without losing any of the amenity. Simplifying circulation is also important. We recently remodeled a house so that circulation took less than 10% of the floor space. It had taken over 40%. All that extra space was "added" without enlarging the house at all.

The second way in which good design adds value is by reducing operating expenses.

I am amazed by the popular willingness to pay two or three times more than necessary to heat and cool buildings.

For the Wampanoag Tribe’s new office and community building on Martha’s Vineyard, we reduced energy consumption by half by designing high windows with "light shelves" to bounce daylight deep inside the building, and the artificial lighting to work only when the daylight was inadequate. This also saves cooling because in summer the lighting adds heat that then needs to be removed. The Tribe now pays half as much to the utility company as it did in its old building. In times of troubled energy supply, this value is undeniable.

The third way in which good design adds value is by anticipating and accommodating change.

This means making it possible for a home or office to change with peoples’ changing needs without a big fuss.

For a house, it means making it livable for a lifetime, for example, by enabling the children’s bedrooms to become a rentable apartment — providing income and security; by planning for a first floor study to become a bedroom when it is no longer easy to climb the stairs; and foreseeing a half bath and laundry being combined to provide an en-suite, accessible bathroom.

Good design can increase profits by reducing staff turnover and absenteeism, as well by increasing personnel productivity and sales volume.

In 1995, Wal-Mart opened a store in Kansas in which a portion of the retail space was daylit simply by placing skylights overhead. To make restocking timely, each of Wal-Mart’s cash registers tracks the merchandise sold. This routine tracking revealed that sales activity was significantly higher in the daylit half of the store. People apparently spent more time— and spent more money — in areas that they found more appealing.

Daycare centers normally have 40% annual staff turnover. At the Hampshire College Children’s Center we designed, Director Lynne Brill says that, eight years later, they had the same pre-school teachers that started there immediately after we completed the building. She attributes that in some measure to the attractive and functional physical surroundings.

Over a 30-year period businesses spend nine times as much on people as on buildings. Small gains in workers’ productivity amount to large returns relative to the cost of building construction and operation.

The final way in which good design adds value is by making something more beautiful ... more interesting.

If a building has real appeal and becomes loved, it will be well cared-for and enhance the image of those connected with it.

Good design offers the prospect of a "bigger" building for the same price: one that does more in less space, one that costs less each year to run, one that holds its value over time, where productivity of the occupants is increased, and which, because of its distinctive aesthetic quality, becomes a treasured commodity.