
2024 Landscape Architecture Awards – Entries Open Soon
Entries to the AILA Awards open Tuesday 6th February and close 13th March.
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.
Entries to the AILA Awards open Tuesday 6th February and close 13th March.
A festival which aims to experiment with new ideas and transform Canberra into a new platform for the best in design.
A platform to develop cutting-edge urban planning and design solutions applicable to many cities in Asia and other developing countries.
A series of publications hosted by OFFICE which capture discourses held in contentious public space.
The Victorian Architecture Awards form part of the Australian Institute of Architects’ National Architecture Awards program which enables public and peer recognition of the innovative work of our members and provides the Institute with a valuable mechanism to promote architects and architecture across Australia and internationally.
Entries close on Monday 5 February 2024.
A global knowledge platform on urban design and city planning, landscape and environmental planning, architectural & building design and innovative technologies.
A platform for promoting interaction and collaboration between cities around the world, exploring the future of cities through artists and designers.
A print and digital magazine putting people front and centre in conversations around design, housing, social infrastructure and social impact.
An inclusive platform for critical urban discourse, exploring the role and impact of architecture in contemporary society.
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.
Lessons on Density Controls from Five Melbourne Projects – with Leanne Hodyl 📍Place: Glou Wine Bar (310 Smith St,…
Join Urban Design Forum for a guided walking tour with City of Stonnington! Start – Prahran Station…
Urban Design Forum Australia are pleased to host a briefing for members on the recent updates to Victoria’s…
Design Excellence Network and Urban Design Forum Australia welcome you to our first combined event where we will…
Join our brains trust to help re-centre nature and improve neighbourhood health When it comes to public…
Join us for our first Forum Forum of 2025, where we will be shifting focus from projects to…
Join Urban Design Forum and Hume City Council for a one-day workshop exploring a vision for the adaptation of Sunbury Town Centre. The…
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…
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.
Find out more about how to become an Urban Design Forum supporter
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.
Andy Fergus
Ben Thorp
Diana Bazan Ibanez
Elisa Casagrande
Kim Delbridge
Mrunal Venkatakrishnan
Rebecca Finn
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.