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Happy 40 Birthday UDG!

The UDG was formally constituted on 10 April 1979. 40 years on and we are very much still guided by the principles laid out in our original Manifesto:

"To provide a forum for those wo believe that planning should be more concerned with the improvement of the  design of the physical environment and the quality of places and to encourage all the professions to combine to this end. This is in the belief that society judges us primarily by the quality of the places we create..."

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Awards 2019

Practice Project Award Winner:

Studio Partington, Andover Estate

Public Sector Award Winner:

South Cambridgeshire DC, Maramalade Lane

Student Award Winner:

Owen Reading, Oxford Brookes University

View the shortlisted entries

   Reports, Surveys and Initiatives

Achieving good urban form through the local plan process

The UDG is launching a service to advise local authorities on strategic urban design issues in the local plan process modelled on the design review process. The Strategic Urban Design Initiative will provide support at critical stages of the plan making process to ensure that there is a strong design input into shaping towns or city quarters.

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Pilot survey reveals widespread failure to update highways standards

Following the UDG 2018 survey which showed that most highway authorities are still using 1960's street design standards, the UDG is to working to ensure that they adopt standards which reflect best practice, comply with professional codes of conduct and discharge statutory and common law duties.

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Are electric vehicles the solution to urban movement?

Following presentations from 12 leading speakers, delegates at the UDG - London Living Streets conference went away in grave doubt. 

Conference report.

Housing delivery under threat through a lack of design skills in planning departments

The UK Government, both in its manifesto and in the recent Housing Green Paper, committed itself to a step change in the delivery of high quality new homes across the country.  Research supported by the UDG puts those aspirations in doubt because of worsening design skills gaps in English local planning authorities.

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