UDG welcome new Chair - Katja Stille of Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design

New Year... New Executive 

Katja Stille  Chair	Christopher Martin  Treasurer	Paul Reynolds  Hon Secretary

At the end of a challenging 2020 a new Executive Team was elected at the UDG AGM in December.

We're delighted to welcome Katja Stille as our new Chair, Christopher Martin of Urban Movement as our new Treasurer and Paul Reynolds of Tapestry returning as our Secretary, along with long serving members and new faces to our Executive Committee.

A few words of introduction from our new Chair

Good urban design happens through collaboration and looking beyond one’s own specialism. We need to break down the professional silos and improve communication and understanding between all of those involved in delivering good places.

Our urban design community creates excellent design proposals every single day, but too often masterplans are not delivered as they have been imagined or our voices are not listened to. Technical guidance, legislation, funding, taxation, landownership and short term interests -  just to mention few – get in the way. I would like to use the next two years to work with our members to make delivering good places the norm and tackle the barriers that we encounter in our day-to-day work.

The challenges of the pandemic, the climate crisis and a focus on community health and wellbeing, has highlighted the relevance of Urban Design – it has become a topic discussed in national papers, government and by the public.

As we go into another lockdown, health and wellbeing remain at the forefront of our thinking and we all know that good urban design is essential to achieving healthier and happier lives.

Through a focus on health and wellbeing and climate change, urban design issues have become part of a national conversation and the Governments agenda. As always, we have a lot to do, but we are in a good position with powerful arguments to promote good urban design. 

I would like to invite all of our members to share ideas and proposals of how we can make it easier to deliver good places. If you have ideas for an urban design event, research, collaboration opportunities or would like to get involved, please get in touch with us at administration@udg.co.uk.

Katja Stille 
Chair of the Urban Design Group + Director at Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design