A wide variety of people call themselves urban designers. In one sense anyone who is involved in making places is active in urban design. Even if you do a university course in ‘urban design’, exactly what you learn will depend on which university you choose, as on other courses. The various urban design courses have different emphases, some focus more on practical design skills, others on policy and theory.
It is important to understand that urban design is not an accredited profession. There is no professional body that decides what should be on the curriculum of an urban design course, or what expertise and knowledge you need to be able to practise as an urban designer.
An urban designer needs a broad understanding of cities, towns and villages, and ways of making them work better. This involves understanding how the planning system operates, how developers make their sums add up, how to assess what makes a particular place special, how to make places easy to move around by foot and vehicle, how to bring life to places that have become run down, how to conserve historic buildings, how to make the most of the landscape, how to think about the future of small and large development sites, how to involve local people, how to make sure that projects actually happen, how to communicate effectively, how to negotiate, and how to write design policy and guidance.
That sounds like a lot of subjects! But they are all related, and each explains a bit more about how urban places work. The urban designer is not expected to be an expert on all of them, but it is essential to be able to see the whole picture.
SEVEN DIALS TRUST – PART TIME JOB OPPORTUNITY IN URBAN CONSERVATION
The Seven Dials Trust, a community-led registered charity, works with local authorities, landowners, national agencies and local amenity groups to protect the historic fabric of Seven Dials in central London and to promote and bring about exemplary environmental improvements in the area.
Are you interested in how we can create happier, healthier and more sustainable places? The Office for Place is a newly established non-departmental public body that will develop and share evidence, advice, tools and learning to support the creation and stewardship of places that are beautiful, sustainable, popular, and healthy.
This is an exciting opportunity to be part of an organisation whose objectives are to:
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IDP have an exciting and challenging opportunity for a flexible, talented Senior Masterplanner/Urban Designer to join our team in our central London office on a permanent basis. |
We are looking for experienced Urban Designers to join our multi-disciplinary team of urban designers, architects and planners.
The role is available either as maternity cover or on a permanent basis. We are looking for a ‘safe pair of hands’ with 4+ years’ experience in an urban design/masterplanning practice and ideally, someone with all or some of the following experience:
