Architecture has an impact on each of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and architects can change the world by making sustainable choices in the way that they model and design buildings, communities, landscape architecture and urban planning.

That’s why we have written this guide to implementing the Global Goals in your way of working and your projects, so that the Global Goals can become your springboard for rethinking your business. Then you can make the most of opportunities, cultivate new business areas, and position yourself at the front of the bus in relation to taking advantage of changes in the market that are going to delineate the future.

Therein lies the great potential inherent in the Global Goals, which is exactly what can seriously contribute to fulfilling the goals in a global perspective. So, when you collate the Global Goals’ possibilities with your quality management work and the way you document the value creation of your projects, you’re really preparing yourselves very thoroughly for the future.

With this publication, it is our aim to offer you the inspiration to do just that.

This booklet presents buildings, urban spaces and facilities designed by Danish architectural firms. The value generated by these projects has been documented by analyses, assessments, statistics and data. The results can be surprisingly impressive, whether in connection with improved health, well-being and learning or improvements to the environment or economy.

Our work in selecting the projects has also shown that there is still a lot to understand about the interrelationships between architecture, behaviour and well-being, as well as the interrelationships between architecture, the environment and the economy.

We hope that these examples will contribute to a better understanding of these interrelationships and thereby help to create better surroundings for all of us in the future.

This book is an introduction to how architecture creates value for clients, users and societies and a guide to how you can create and document value as an architect.

How does architecture creates value? What kinds of value, how and for whom?

The book is based on the experience from our ‘Architecture Creates Value’ project, wherein we presented more than 75 well-documented cases of built projects creating value. The project made evident that the design of places and buildings is making a profound impact. Architecture can provide solutions that enable social, environmental and economic benefits and improve the management of resources and environmental impacts.

The pressures on resources and environment must be addressed urgently to ensure the social and cultural progress of societies worldwide. Does your project contribute locally to the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations? You can use the methods in this book to assess how you are doing.

We need art, facts and knowledge to improve solutions for the generations to come.

In this booklet, the Danish Association of Architectural Firms describes 10 cases that exemplify how we can use planning, architecture and the landscape to create value with less impact on the climate and to protect Danish assets against climate change.

Climate change calls for stronger initiatives in the building and construction sector – on the one hand to promote broader use of sustainable solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and on the other hand to make our buildings and cities more resilient to climate change. We have collected 10 examples of green architecture which, in different ways, implement innovative solutions and prompt us to ‘think new’ in the green transition.

The projects in this booklet portray solutions that have already been implemented and which, in different ways, incorporate long-term, sustainable strategies in buildings and construction, supporting society’s green transition without jeopardizing the common social basis for good architecture.

The projects support a number of the Sustainable Development Goals but their common denominator is their unique climate action.

In this booklet, the Danish Association of Architectural Firms presents a number of cases illustrating how architecture creates value for pupils, students, teachers and local communities through carefully considered and well-designed schools and other educational facilities.

The wellbeing, motivation and learning of children and young people are improved by good physical surroundings. Architecture plays an important role in supporting teaching and learning at educational institutions, from primary and lower secondary schools to universities and university colleges.

We have collected 12 examples of educational architecture with innovative solutions that establish stimulating study and work communities for teachers and students, and at the same time contribute to the local area.

The architecture of buildings sets the framework for learning environments and wellbeing at Danish schools. It’s important that educational architecture offers many different types of more open or less open spaces for concentration, exercise and play. Research shows that flexible spaces that support learning through movement and physical exercise bolster concentration and support social relationship building.

The 12 projects in this booklet support sustainable development.