T2: Achieving Quality in Urban Design

ATLAS strongly believes that successful new environments are created through a creative and inclusive design led process.

Urban design is central to the art of ‘placemaking’, with successful places characterised by quality, both in terms of function and in terms of experience. A project is highly likely to fail if it does not produce a vibrant and attractive sustainable environment for all to live in, work and visit.

Urban design is therefore not just about physical outputs, but about the relationships between people and places, particularly at an emotional level in terms of identity and understanding. It also addresses functional components in terms of movement and connections on foot and other forms of transport, and is also about urban form, i.e. the layout of streets and spaces and how these are addressed and enclosed by buildings.

Urban design deals with how environments are understood and perceived and how people find their way to and through places. It is about use and activity within buildings and the public realm and the relationship between the two. It is about the performance of environments and finding and delivering synergies between uses and activities so that rich and positive environments can be achieved. It deals with the visual qualities of places and the appearance of buildings. It is also intrinsically linked to sustainable development with the acknowledgement that land use, settlement form and movement significantly affects, the natural environment, use of resources, energy consumption, CO2 emissions and therefore climate change.

Further definitions and more detailed explanations of urban design can be found in a number of sources, but ATLAS considers that the essence of urban design is succinctly expressed within the Urban Design Compendium, which states:

‘Urban design is about creating a vision for an area and deploying the skills and resources to realise that vision’.

‘Masterplanning’ is a key part of the urban design process, and a range of design tools are available to bring together a range of influences and components to create a successful place.