OPINION: On a balmy spring evening on Wednesday, 12 October 2022, ninety people gathered on the rooftop bar of the Glenmore Hotel to celebrate the launch of the Urban Design Association of NSW (UDA).
Urban design considers the combined outcome that buildings, streets and landscapes have on our urban places. It assesses and shapes these effects at a range of scales from individual sites to cities and regions. Urban designers are in demand in design, strategic planning, policy and leadership roles, working with government, communities and private companies to shape our built environments over the long term.
Within three months, UDA membership has grown to over 120 members and events like debates and talks in the pub have been popular. There is clearly a pent-up demand for exploring and engaging with the big challenges of urban design.
Momentum in NSW had faltered
So why has an association only just been created? Fifty years after the emergence of urban design and ten years since the Urban Design Protocol for Australian Cities, it was realised that urban design needed to speak up, to be an independent voice. In NSW the organising momentum of the 1990’s that saw widespread debate and advocacy from groups like the Urban Design Forum and Australian Council for New Urbanism, had faltered. In contrast to other states with specialist associations, many NSW urban designers felt isolated without a network or peers or a shared identity.
Over the years architecture, landscape architecture and planning had supported urban design, yet the professional discourse on what set urban design apart was lacking. Too many conferences and academic events had become consultancies spruiking their latest projects or esoteric topics that failed to resonate with practitioners. And most worryingly, the profession was being appropriated into simplistic guidelines, lifestyle photography, and checklists as if the process of urban design was as simple as ordering a fast-food meal deal.
Urban design as a profession
Urban designers recognised that there was a need for an independent body focussed on the practice, advocacy and professional status of urban design.
The distinguishing feature of a profession is the core skill of the know-how. Urban design’s strongest professional skill is the know-how of synthesising the complexity of the built environment into a viable proposition that improves the public good.
Urban designers are not experts on every element in the built environment, but they know how to put the pieces together. This is a unique and valuable skill, not to be confused with simply knowing place jargon or knowing that people like safe, vibrant streets with trees.
Communities, business, governments, and the environment are all beneficiaries of better built environments at all scales. Improving the understanding of and role of urban design will help diagnose and fix the gaps between the grand visions and lived realities of our cities, towns and suburbs.
The Urban Design Association of NSW
The UDA formed as a democratic, incorporated association with the purpose of advancing urban design as a profession playing an essential role in shaping better built environments.
At the launch event, event organisers Philip Graus, Deena Ridenour, Monica Desanti, Tanya Vincent, and Diana Griffiths paid homage to the decades of work and advocacy by urban designers of the past, the determination of today’s generation to form a collective voice and shape the future for the profession.
Professional discourse on urbanism, thought leadership and networking opportunities are early priorities. The UDA will also advance urban design as a profession through documenting competencies, improving education and offering a transparent recognition pathway.
Establishing the UDA also brings NSW opportunities from potential alliances with other urban design groups in Australia, such as Urban Design Forum (Victoria), Urban Design Alliance (Queensland) and internationally, such as the Urban Design Group (UK).
The UDA is seeking to attract a diverse and inclusive membership, urban designers at all career stages and people interested in urbanism. A forum for people working across all the aspects of the sector including consultancies, universities, government, public agencies and the development industry. All those who support the association’s objectives are encouraged to join and help shape activities to advance urban design across NSW.