Urban designer

Urban designers create practical and visually pleasing places, including buildings, open spaces, and landscapes

Working as a vital part of a much bigger team, your role as an urban designer will be to help bring viable developments to life, ensuring that the environments you create are both useful and enjoyable. Urban designers are typically architects, town planners or landscape architects.

As an urban designer, you'll work with developers, local communities, architects, planners, traffic engineers, landscape architects, and transport planners, to resolve problems and conflicts and create better spaces.

Urban design has grown considerably and offers an interesting role, a varied working environment and a good career pathway with opportunities for progression.

Types of urban design work

It's usual to specialise in one area, such as:

• urban environments in towns and cities
• rural environments in villages
• spatial areas, in parks, open landscapes
• generalist work, which includes projects that range across all of the above.

Responsibilities

As an urban designer, you'll need to:

• survey land and buildings, analyse their current use and make recommendations for their future development
• work under your own initiative and direction, as part of a large and multiskilled team, including architects, local government, building contractors, material suppliers and local communities
• be creative and innovative in your ability to picture buildings and landscapes in your mind before creating them on paper
• apply your vision to designing a variety of built spaces, either creating brand new designs or revising and improving existing ones - these could range from small individual streets, parks and squares to major towns, housing areas and cities
• work on projects as diverse as airports or hospitals
• create detailed drawings using your artistic or graphic skills, converting your vision into a technical drawing, using specific programmes and software such as computer-aided design (CAD)
• develop excellent relationships with people - both colleagues and external contacts such as planners, architects, politicians and local communities
• understand the needs of people who will be using the space you design, through research and analysis you will consider political, environmental, social, economic, spatial, psychological and physical factors
• use your communication skills, empathy and knowledge to negotiate with and influence people to make better informed decisions about successfully planned spaces
• educate communities involved with the planning of their local region or neighbourhood
• work with the wider planning team to ensure policies and guidance are followed.

Salary

• Junior/graduate urban designers usually start on a salary of around £25,000.
• Experienced urban designers can earn between £30,000 and £45,000.
• Senior urban designers, or those in the position of partner or associate within a firm, could earn £45,000 to £60,000 depending on the types and size of projects undertaken.

Most urban designers are in employed positions, but some go on to launch their own urban design consultancy. Depending on the type and size of organisation you work for, you may be given some benefits such as a mobile phone or company car, as the role requires regular site visits.

Income figures are intended as a guide only.

Working hours

You can expect a varied and busy career as an urban designer, which is reflected in the working hours and environment. While some of your time will be office based (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) there will also be plenty of on-site visits to check on the progress of your work and help deal with any challenges that arise.

Meetings with local communities often occur during the evenings, so some evening and weekend work is to be expected. Although paid overtime isn't usually offered for work done outside your usual hours, organisations often offer time off in lieu. Taking annual leave usually takes place outside of peak times or deadline periods within a project.

Part-time work and job sharing are possible.

What to expect

• Working as an urban designer can be hugely rewarding as you'll help to create places and spaces that improve people's lives. Making towns, cities, villages and open spaces more enjoyable to live in, working to improve sustainability and making a positive environmental impact.
• The role can be stressful too at times, particularly when project deadlines are due, so you'll need to enjoy a fast-paced and constantly evolving environment and be able to work under pressure.
• It's essential to be self-motivated and highly organised as you’ll be looked to as the expert in your field of urban design and will need to help lead the project, ensuring it's delivered on time and within budget.
• You may be required to wear smart or formal business dress for meetings with officials or community groups. Casual, practical clothes are worn for site visits. When on site you'll also be required to wear the appropriate safety garments, such as a hard hat, high-visibility jacket or steel toe-capped boots.

Qualifications

As an urban designer, you'll have completed an undergraduate degree in a related subject or a foundation degree that enables you to progress with further undergraduate study.

Suitable subjects include:

• architecture
• built environment
• civil engineering
• construction management
• economics
• geography
• graphic design
• human geography
• urban design
• urban planning.

Unlike other sectors, such as architecture, urban design is not an accredited profession and there is no professional body governing the content of higher education courses in the field. You may therefore find that course content varies from one university to another.

Many employers look for a Masters-level qualification in a relevant subject, plus additional work experience. So, if you have for example studied architecture as an undergraduate, you could also consider completing a Masters qualification in urban design.

A less common route into urban design could be moving across from a related role, such as town planning. This would most likely involve completing a part-time Masters in a related subject as part of your professional development.

As populations grow, the need for suitable living spaces created by urban and rural planning increases. As a result, the urban design sector continues to expand with good opportunities and prospects. In addition to the relevant qualifications, work experience is key in securing your first post.

Skills

You'll need to have:

• a keen interest in both design and the built environment
• an ability to work on complex projects which are prone to change
• good technical and artistic skills
• a strong analytical and problem-solving mindset
• a resilient approach
• good communication skills, including the ability to listen, educate and empathise
• the ability to juggle multiple priorities
• excellent organisation skills, needed to meet deadlines
• a good head for figures so that you can understand budgets, keep track of costs and provide estimates of costings for design work to be done
• an interest in working independently and as part of a multi-skilled team
• excellent attention to detail
• skills in the relevant software programmes, or the aptitude to learn from appropriate training
• a willingness to present to groups of people at all levels
• a strong desire to make changes to the built environment for the better
• passion for the complex and changeable scope and future of cities, towns, villages and landscapes.

Work experience

Urban design is a highly practical and skilled profession, so previous work experience either in a voluntary capacity or as part of a programme of study is essential. Many courses offer the opportunity to engage with relevant placements or internships, but the focus will be on you to source and secure these.

The type of work experience you get will depend on the type of organisation you work for. The more work experience you can complete, the better. Try to obtain experience with a variety of employers, covering a range of project sizes and types. A breadth of experience will give you a strong advantage and a very useful insight.

Find out more about the different kinds of work experience and internships that are available.

Employers

Urban designers are employed in both the public and private sectors, for example, by consultancies, developers and local authorities. The types of design projects you'll work on will largely depend on the type and size of organisation you are employed by and whether the organisation has a specialist area. For example, a consultancy that specialises in sustainability or green builds, or a local authority with a mandate for the growth of schools in the region.

Employment within an organisation is common, but with enough experience, you could go on to start your own business or consultancy. To work in a self-employed capacity, you'll need to be highly motivated and have a good understanding of what is involved in running a business.

Look for vacancies at:

• Urban Design Group Jobs - membership charity.
• Planning Jobs

Specialist recruitment agencies such as Lewis Davey and Macdonald & Company handle urban design vacancies.

Professional development

Having begun your career in an entry-level role and developed a portfolio of work, you can shape the direction of your career according to your interests.

For example, you could decide to undertake additional training in a niche area such as design for sustainable cities or policy development in urban planning. Blending this with developing skills in leadership and management is also possible. Most often, training will take place through external courses, conferences, workshops and seminars, such as those listed on Urban Design Group.

There are plenty of opportunities for professional development, but since there is currently no governing professional body you'll need to explore training and development options yourself. Often this can be done in partnership with your employer.

There are many technological advances in urban design, including those relating to the creation of smart cities and green infrastructure. Also seen in the use of digital twins, where replica models are used to make better planning decisions.

Depending on your route into urban design, you may also find your professional development grows in line with your original subject of study. For example, if you studied architecture as an undergraduate, you could join RIBA (the Royal Institute of British Architects) as a member to benefit from their continuing professional development (CPD) courses for the duration of your membership.

Career prospects

After around five years, you could expect to move into more senior urban design roles (e.g. project lead, urban planner or city planner), undertaking larger or more complex projects, for which you would have increased responsibility and pay. You may be given increasing responsibility for integrating technology and sustainable solutions into urban places and spaces.

Typically, after approximately ten to fifteen years you could reach associate or partner level (in a consultancy-based environment) or become a department head at a local authority or private sector company such as Arup. At this level, you'll have overall responsibility for large-scale design projects, including budget and team management.