What is Urban Design?
Urban design is a collaborative process to help shape and design the future form and performance of our cities. Cities are complex, made up of physical elements such as infrastructure, landscape and buildings, but also more intangible elements such as culture, governance and the experiences of those who live there. Urban design coordinates these elements to make cities and neighbourhoods where people want to live, creating places that respond to their context.
Urban design is visionary
Negotiating complex issues and interests, seeking to address current and future problems within our built environments. Through urban design, we pursue an equitable urban environment with a human and ecological focus.
Urban design is a process
Exploring how to improve and protect our urban environments. Often operating at a strategic scale, urban design navigates the intersection of social, economic and environmental factors over a long period of time.
Urban design is an integrated discipline
Bringing together people from diverse fields to collaboratively explore complex relationships in our cities. Urban designers focus on the public realm – all elements of built and unbuilt space – and intentionally shape our urban environments.
Sharing knowledge is critical to support the exchange of ideas. As a discipline focused on cities and urban regions, we draw upon broad expertise across public policy, health, sociology, environmental science, economics, art and design. The following resources, organised by media type and key themes, provide a repository from our favourite information sources.
Visit the Queen Victoria Gardens this summer to encounter Tadao Ando’s visionary design for MPavilion 10. Drop into one of our free events, purchase a coffee and a snack from our kiosk or relax and unwind in the Gardens.
An initiative of the Museum of Brisbane (MoB) championing the movers and shakers of the city’s art and design sector bringing collective creativity to the fore.
A festival which aims to experiment with new ideas and transform Canberra into a new platform for the best in design.
Throughout the year, we host public conversations to generate dialogue and debate, as part of inspiring design festivals and programs. Our member events support a collegiate urban design profession. For current information, follow us on social media and subscribe to our mailing list.
Online briefing about Floor Area Ratio and its potential for Victoria, on Friday, October 18, presented in partnership…
An engaging panel discussion and presentations exploring the future of suburban development. As our communities evolve, retrofitting our…
Cities in Australia and Aotearoa share a common challenge – the need to intensify existing suburbs on a…
On Wednesday, August 21, 2024, Urban Design Forum combined Forum Forum with our Annual General Meeting, as an…
Urgent Cities was an in-person workshop event run by Urban Design Forum as part of Melbourne Design Week….
Forum Forum event for 2024 featured guest speaker Michael Frazzetto, Director of Six Degrees Architects, who shared his…
The Australian Urban Design Awards were created in 1996 by then Prime Minister Paul Keating’s Urban Design Taskforce….
With the current Victorian Government focus on 70% of development within existing urban areas, there is a risk…
Place as Protagonist explores memories and place in the city through two modes of storytelling: online map-based community…
Our Practice Notes provide best practice guidance for built environment practitioners, the community and government. Research is commissioned independently or in partnership with universities to address identified knowledge gaps, and are subject to peer review for quality assurance. Practice Notes are released quarterly and reflect our core impact areas.
The demand for highly skilled urban designers has never been greater. Australia is facing a shortfall of qualified urban designers, owing to lack of understanding of professional opportunities, limited exposure alongside with challenges with accreditation.
Attracting Talent
Urban design is a rewarding, but less known discipline. We map out the career pathways for the next generation of urban designers and provide a platform for increasing the profile of urban design education and the profession.
Education Reform
Urban design demands far more than technical design skills. Operating at the interface of built environment disciplines, urban designers solve complex urban issues. We are working with a number of Australian universities to continue to elevate the standard of urban design education.
Continued Learning
Urban design is a life-long pursuit of continued learning. We offer master classes for built environment professionals including cross-disciplinary workshops, seminars and study tours. For current information, follow us on social media and subscribe to our mailing list.
We support a collegiate profession that promotes the rapid exchange of ideas, and nurtures a new generation of designers. We believe in collaboration – not competition.
Building Community
Our member networks support connection and professional growth. This includes frequent guest speakers and round table workshops, as well as a curated communication platform to share knowledge and career opportunities.
Mentor Forum
Our mentorship program for students and professionals supports the next generation of urban designers to thrive. We partner mentees with experienced professionals to offer mentorship, coaching and career advice. Click here to read more about the Mentor Forum.
Our members understand the critical role that urban design has in shaping better environments for broader public benefit.
We welcome members from a diverse range of backgrounds, including urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, planning and other related professions from across Australia.
We draw upon our individual members and supporters for their expertise and knowledge, collegiality and commitment to creating a better urban future for all.
Business as usual is no longer a choice. Alone our effectiveness is limited, but collectively we can advocate for the change our world needs. We need public policy that puts people and the environment first. We need development processes that provide ‘more good’, not ‘less bad’. We need education programs that attract the best talent and cultivate the next generation of public interest urbanists.
We enable this change, through empowering a more strategic and effective design industry. Our cities’ future is bright, but we need to work together to get there.
Urban Design Forum is a non-profit organisation that supports public interest outcomes in our cities. We believe in the role that cities can play in solving the major challenges of our time.
The Forum has three roles: creating a supportive network of urban designers and allied professionals, sharing knowledge on best practice urbanism, and researching and advocating for better urban education, systems and outcomes.
Urban Design Forum was launched in 1986 to raise awareness of the important role that urban design makes in shaping our built environments. Over 35 years, we have created the opportunity for urban designers across Australia to connect through public conversations and events. Our newsletter has raised the knowledge base for best practice urban design.
Our members understand the critical role that urban design has in shaping better environments for broader public benefit.
We welcome members from a diverse range of backgrounds, including urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, planning and other related professions from across Australia.
Katherine is a Principal at MGS Architects, an architecture and urbanism consultancy that exists to create places with longevity and adaptability that deliver daily value to the people who use them. Drawing on her experience as an architect and urban designer in Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, she leads significant urban transformation projects, with a focus on university campuses, creative employment neighbourhoods and housing precincts. Katherine is also a sessional teacher at Monash University, inspiring the next generation of public interest urbanists.
Heinz is an urban design leader and strategic thinker with a focus on the 21st century city as a proving ground for urban adaptation, community resilience and social equity. He leads the Urban Design at Woods Bagot in Australia and is an Adjunct Professor and lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Melbourne. Graduating with a Masters of Science in Architecture and Urban Design (MSAUD) from the Columbia University GSAPP in New York, he is based in Melbourne working on both Australian and global projects. Heinz has been an Adjunct Professor and lecturer at Swineburne University of Technology and The University of Melbourne MSD as well as a guest critic for architectural and urban design studios at Columbia GSAPP Melbourne MSD, RMIT, Monash, Miami and IIT.
Ella enjoys tackling social and environmental issues throughout her design process. With her skills in engagement, she helps to bridge the gap between communities and authorities to reach mutually beneficial outcomes. Above all, she is passionate in strengthening supportive, sustainable and active communities to improve people’s daily lives and has worked across project scales in both Australia and New Zealand. She is currently an associate urban designer and project lead at MGS Architects, and throughout her career has worked in growth areas, regional towns and most urban areas of Melbourne. As a practical and strategic thinker, she specialises in urban renewal, social housing, transit-oriented design, master planning, open space/public realm planning, walking/cycling improvements and engagement work, enjoying when she can unite these elements through visioning early on.
Will is an urban designer and Senior Associate at Mesh with a background in architecture, planning and landscape architecture. He specialises in established area precinct masterplanning and innovation precincts drawing on his multidisciplinary experience working in Australia, Netherlands, US and UK. Will has co-led a design studio at Monash University as well as been a guest critic for design studios at Melbourne MSD, Monash and TU Delft. Will also has two dogs and he will talk to you about them at any opportunity.
Dr. Brendan Baxter is an urban designer and architect. A senior government practitioner with extensive private sector experience, he is passionate about supporting public interest outcomes in our cities. Brendan’s 2019 thesis The New Berlin: Urban design models for a more compact and sustainable city identified lessons relevant to major challenges facing Australian cities. Brendan enjoys sharing his expertise through guest-teaching roles at universities and leading community architectural tours.
We draw upon our individual members and supporters for their expertise and knowledge, collegiality and commitment to creating a better urban future for all.
Urban Design Forum would not be possible without the generous support of the following organisations, who respect our independent voice in the built environment.
As advocates we are committed to engaging in critical conversations about urban design in the media.
Sharing knowledge is critical to support the exchange of ideas. As a discipline focused on cities and urban regions, we draw upon broad expertise across public policy, health, sociology, environmental science, economics, art and design. The following resources, organised by media type and key themes, provide a repository from our favourite information sources.
Visit the Queen Victoria Gardens this summer to encounter Tadao Ando’s visionary design for MPavilion 10. Drop into one of our free events, purchase a coffee and a snack from our kiosk or relax and unwind in the Gardens.
An initiative of the Museum of Brisbane (MoB) championing the movers and shakers of the city’s art and design sector bringing collective creativity to the fore.
A festival which aims to experiment with new ideas and transform Canberra into a new platform for the best in design.