Affordable and socially sustainable housing has become a pressing concern in both Australia and Germany, raising urgent questions about how architects can meaningfully improve housing outcomes amid rising costs and increasing urban pressures. Hayball, known for their research‑driven and socially focused practice, offer a compelling example of how design can intentionally support wellbeing. Their project CRT+YRD—part of Melbourne’s Nightingale Village—centres on community, safety and everyday connection through features such as a shared courtyard, open walkways and communal spaces, all designed to enhance social interaction and adaptability.
What distinguishes CRT+YRD is Hayball’s decision to evaluate these design intentions through Australia’s first Social Value Pilot Study in housing. Conducted with the Australian Social Value Bank and involving one resident per apartment, the study measured wellbeing outcomes and identified over AUD $517,000 in social value created in the building’s first year. The findings revealed measurable gains in neighbourliness, safety and community connection while highlighting gaps in national social‑value metrics. These insights resonate strongly within Germany’s ongoing debates around equitable housing and community‑led models, suggesting fertile ground for international knowledge exchange. Readers interested in the study’s methodology and findings can find the report here.
In this NAXNAX Netzwerk Architekturexport Interview, Eilish McNab explains that Hayball’s work centres on designing housing that measurably improves wellbeing, supported by their Social Value Framework. Using CRT+YRD as a case study, she highlights how intentional design fosters community and safety, and how Australia’s first social‑value measurement pilot reveals both strong positive impacts and the need for better national metrics.
NAX: Australia and Germany are both facing mounting pressures around affordable and social housing. How does Hayball position its architectural practice within this broader international challenge, and what principles guide your approach to designing equitable, community‑centred housing?
McNab: Australia and Germany face similar pressures around housing affordability, supply and equity, and Hayball seeks to address this global challenge through design and research. For the last 40 years, our work has been driven by a strong belief that well designed housing can have a positive impact on peoples lives and strengthen communities. As governments worldwide accelerate delivery, our priority is ensuring that new housing provides long‑term social and environmental benefits, not just buildings.
Our approach is grounded in the principle that design decisions have measurable impacts on people’s lives. We embed sustainability, buildability and social impact thinking into every stage of our work, reframing success to include outcomes such as improved safety, access to green space, social cohesion and local economic participation. These benefits are known as social value.
To measure this impact, we developed an award‑winning Social Value Framework that draws on leading wellbeing research and established measurement tools. The framework articulates project aspirations, tracks them through design and delivery, and measures whether they are achieved. Structured around three pillars and 15 outcomes, it allows us to design more equitable, sustainable and community‑centred housing.
Proposed Social and Affordable Development in SydneyRender by DIM Studio
Through this approach, Hayball contributes not only to Australia’s housing needs but to the wider international dialogue on creating resilient, socially responsive communities.
We embed sustainability, buildability and social impact thinking into every stage of our work, reframing success to include outcomes such as improved safety, access to green space, social cohesion and local economic participation. These benefits are known as social value.
Eilish McNab
NAX: CRT+YRD in Nightingale Village is intentionally designed “from the inside out,” with open walkways, a central courtyard, and shared amenities fostering social connection and safety. Could you walk us through the key design strategies behind this building and how they were intended to support community wellbeing?
McNab: Nightingale Village is located in Melbourne, Australia. It is an innovative development by Nightingale Housing, where the design of six buildings was completed by six architects. Each architect agreed to a standard of environmental and social sustainable goals to be achieved in each apartment block.
CRT+YRD, a 39 apartment block, which was designed and delivered by Hayball. The building’s name was derived from its most important feature and design element, the central courtyard. Designed from the inside out, the thoughtfully landscaped central courtyard provides the formal mechanism to achieve a heightened sense of community, security, foster visual connection, abundant natural light, and ventilation between all the apartments.
CRT+YRD shared laundry areaTom Ross
CRT+YRD has been designed to foster the sense of belonging and community through open walkways, communal gathering opportunities and a communal laundry terrace. It also focuses on the resident experience of each home, as all the dwellings provide opportunities for connection, retreat and offer flexibility of private/communal living. The building was designed to accommodate various modes of occupation with the provision for adaptable living to support residents of diverse ages and physical capacities.
Designed from the inside out, the thoughtfully landscaped central courtyard provides the formal mechanism to achieve a heightened sense of community, security, foster visual connection, abundant natural light, and ventilation between all the apartments.
Eilish McNab
NAX: Your paper, Lessons from Housing Case Studies, offers a rare, evidence‑based view of how design influences residents’ wellbeing. What did you learn from this first attempt to measure social value—particularly in terms of what worked well at CRT+YRD, and what surprised you in the findings?
McNab: Our pilot study at CRT+YRD was Australia’s first attempt to measure the social value created through design. With no national framework available, we partnered with the Australian Social Value Bank to adapt their tools, develop surveys and monetise the outcomes we aimed to achieve – drawing confidence from established UKVK Vereinigtes Königreich precedents.
The strongest insights came from residents. With participation from one person in every apartment, we were able to link design decisions directly to lived experience. The data showed a significant uplift in wellbeing, particularly around community connection and sense of safety. Spaces purposely designed for interaction – like widened circulation areas and the laundry terrace – were repeatedly identified as successful, with 93% of residents reporting they speak to their neighbours more since moving in. Residents also highlighted unexpected details, such as increasing the height of gates and bike-store fencing for security, which has informed other projects since.
CRT+YRD open walkways and circulation spaceTom Ross
The study also revealed limitations in current Australian measurement tools: only five of our intended outcomes could be monetised, leaving several social and environmental impacts unmeasured. This gap points to a broader industry challenge – and opportunity. Meaningfully embedding social value into future housing will require collective investment in better wellbeing data and more robust national metrics.
Meaningfully embedding social value into future housing will require collective investment in better wellbeing data and more robust national metrics.
Eilish McNab
NAX: The Pilot Study quantified more than AUD $517,000 in social value generated in the first year alone, using the Australian Social Value Bank’s wellbeing valuation methodology. How has the ability to monetise social outcomes changed the way you communicate with partners—such as developers, policymakers or community housing providers—particularly in the context of affordable housing?
McNab: Architects are often required to monetise outcomes to enable the communication of design in a way that aligns with others, including developers and policymakers, who are often operating under financial and regulatory pressures. Although all social and environmental outcomes matter, those that aren’t monetised are often overlooked because they can’t be compared to standard commercial metrics. Wellbeing valuation helps bridge this gap: the dollar value attributed to an outcome represents the income an individual would need to receive to experience an equivalent uplift in wellbeing, allowing us to demonstrate the value generated through design.
CRT+YRD social balconiesTom Ross
This capability strengthens our desire to forecast social value in future projects, identify which design features generate the greatest benefit, and justify them even within tight budgets. It also offers transparency for residents and communities, showing that affordable housing can be socially and environmentally responsible while meaningfully improving wellbeing.
We seek to pair monetised values with resident surveys and project data because financial figures alone can’t capture the nuances of lived experience, local context or specific design decisions. Combining quantitative and qualitative evidence allows us to communicate impact more accurately and advocate for housing that genuinely improves people’s lives.
Although all social and environmental outcomes matter, those that aren’t monetised are often overlooked because they can’t be compared to standard commercial metrics. Wellbeing valuation helps bridge this gap.
Eilish McNab
NAX: Given the lessons learned—from design implications (e.g., stronger acoustic strategies, more meeting spaces) to measurement implications (e.g., need for more wellbeing values and early‑phase surveys)—how might Hayball’s Social Value Framework inform future housing projects in Australia and abroad? Do you see potential relevance for European contexts such as Germany’s social and affordable housing sector?
McNab: Australia is currently making significant investments in social and affordable housing, creating a rare opportunity to influence not only how many homes are delivered, but how meaningfully they support community wellbeing. Our long-term ambition has been to ensure that social value becomes part of decision making. By incorporating the lessons learned from our studies – such as the need for stronger acoustic performance, more spaces for community to gather and the need for baseline surveys – and openly sharing both our findings and the limitations of the research, we aim to contribute to a national conversation about establishing a consistent approach to measuring social value. Looking globally, without standardisation there is a real risk of inconsistent methods and mistrust in results. A common methodology would improve reliability and help governments and industry forecast social outcomes alongside financial ones.
Preston Crossing, Social and Affordable Development in Melbourne Hayball
As this approach becomes more understood, it has the potential to influence not only design but also policy and procurement. Targets, metrics and survey requirements can be embedded in consultant scopes, contractor tenders and long‑term maintenance contracts, creating accountability from concept to post‑occupancy. Much of this thinking is directly transferable to European contexts. Germany faces similar affordability pressures, yet its strong culture of community‑led housing, including Baugruppen models, is uniquely aligned with social value methodology. These projects already have embedded community participatory structures, making it feasible to undertake early baseline surveys and track the change in wellbeing over time. With Europe’s tradition of evidence‑based policymaking, integrating social value measurement could strengthen the case for more community‑centred, environmentally resilient and socially responsive housing across Europe.
NAX: Thank you for the valuable insight into your work and practice philosophy.
