Training in Urban Design Alan Rowley and Lyn Davies
Training for urban design
In December 1999, the DETR commissioned two small scale research projects into aspects of urban design. One involved a survey of design skills in local government and was undertaken by Arup Economics and Planning. The other study, undertaken by a team from The University of Reading, sought to clarify the 'baseline' of urban design skills in terms of the training received by those who influence urban design. The tasks set for the project were to provide:
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An overview of the provision of urban design teaching at universities and other teaching institutions through the undergraduate and postgraduate courses that are run and the continuing professional development training provided; the provision of urban design training by other providers; and the presence of urban design skills in the skills specifications set by the built environment professional institutions, including the accreditation criteria of relevant university courses and the requirements for continuing professional development.
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Drawing on the overview, pointers to areas of deficiency and how these might be addressed by providers of education and training.
It has been estimated that there are some 180,000 individuals, professionals and others, who may be involved with urban development projects and thus influencing urban design.1 They include among the professions, architects, planners, surveyors, civil engineers and landscape architects who together with the Urban Design Group and the Civic Trust have formed the Urban Design Alliance. The combined membership of these five professions is 216,000, with about 5,000 applicants commencing first degree courses at the universities and colleges each year potentially leading to a professional qualification in these disciplines. However, statistics from the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) reveal that the overall number of UK-based applicants admitted onto first degree courses accredited by the five institutions declined by about 30 per cent between 1994 and 1998: the only exception to this trend is architecture where admissions of UK-based applicants remained roughly constant.
The study was undertaken in a very short space of time with the research report being completed in mid-February 2000. The terms of reference stated that as far as possible the project should draw together existing work rather than undertake original survey work. The sources of information used included: literature on definitions of, and education for, urban design; course accreditation guidelines issued by the five institutions; course handbooks, prospectuses and web pages issued by universities and others responsible for providing accredited courses and courses in urban design or closely related fields; guidance issued by the institutions relating to post-qualification experience prior to full professional membership and requirements for continuing professional development; and lists of CPD events nationally and in two regions during a twelve-month period in 1999-2000.
What do urban designers need to know?
Figure 1: Template of knowledge and skills for urban design | Urban design is a loose term with many different meanings, but essentially it describes a process by which quality in the built environment is facilitated. The process involves many different people and interests; it extends over a range of spatial scales and a protracted timescale; and it involves exercising indirect rather than direct influence and control over design decisions. An example from the City of Birmingham was used to illustrate the stages from city-wide policies and a city centre design strategy, through framework plans for parts of the city centre and a master plan and design brief for a particular site, to the final design of a particular group of buildings or the detailed treatment of spaces. The urban design process involves members of all five professions as well as many others. The challenge is to identify the knowledge and skills required by this process. They are not the skills of a single individual. The full array of skills needed to ensure a high quality of urban design are exercised by many individuals, working in different organisations as well as in the core design team. And those involved in the process, whether centrally as part of the design team, or peripherally in other roles, should have a clear knowledge of the urban design process as a whole and an awareness of their individual contributions within it. The study involved a literature review to arrive at a definition of urban design and provide a basis for the preparation of a template expressing the range of what urban designers need to know and be able to do. This template was used to assess the educational guidelines of the professions, the accredited and non-accredited courses provided by universities and other organisations, and continuing professional development. On the basis of this assessment an analysis of the baseline of training for urban design was made, and conclusions drawn about gaps in the provision and opportunities for future development. |
The template covered:
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contextual knowledge about cities, development processes and urban design theories and principles;
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the activities in urban design, from analysis of the physical setting, through formulation of design policies and preparation of the various kinds of design at various scales, to the processes of implementation including development appraisal and development control; and
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the generic skills specific to urban design, including creativity, graphic skills, market awareness and negotiating, and visualisation, for the ultimate test of a successful urban design becomes the capacity to visualise its outcome.
Urban designers require a broad range of knowledge and skills as illustrated by the template. Other parties involved in urban development and design decision-making need to have a sound appreciation of urban design. Training for urban design is required by two groups and at two levels: urban design practitioners requiring urban design skills and competences as well as knowledge; and contributors to the process of urban design requiring an appreciation of urban design.
The scope of training for urban design
| The scope of training for urban design can be represented as a series of circles or ellipses - Figure 2. The core of this widening circle of interests is urban design's foundation in definitions, principles and values. Levels A-D illustrate the scope of the training for urban design practitioners so they possess the knowledge and operational skills to enable them to engage in one or more of the different types of urban design: urban development design - for example, Birmingham's Brindleyplace or London's Broadgate developments; design policy guidance and control - the design dimension of the planning process; public realm design - for example, the redesign of Birmingham's inner ring road and improvements to Centenary and Victoria Squares in the City, or the development of Manchester's Metrolink; and community urban design - using a range of community planning and design methods in a wide variety of situations. Levels A-C illustrate the scope of the training for urban design contributors to ensure the level of awareness and understanding of the context and processes of urban design, either as an education in itself, building on an initial education in an underlying discipline, or as part of the education in that initial underlying discipline. |  Figure 2: The scope of training for urban design |
The five professional institutions issue guidelines governing the accreditation of courses for an initial professional education. There are approximately 166 such courses in England accredited by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal Town Planning Institute, the General Practice and Planning & Development divisions of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Landscape Institute, and those courses most closely related to urban design by the Institution of Civil Engineers. In recent years more than 30 postgraduate and a few undergraduate courses in urban design and related fields have also been established but these are not professionally accredited. The institutions are responsible for admitting graduates from the initial courses to chartered membership after they have completed the requisite amount of practical experience and a form of assessment of professional competence (APC) for which guidelines are also issued. The chartered members are then required to fulfil a commitment to continuing professional development.
Findings of the study
The speed with which the study had to be carried out, and the consequent reliance on publicly available sources of a very variable degree of detail and relevance, means that the results need to be seen as enabling broad generalisations rather than a detailed specification of the baseline provision for training in urban design. Moreover, the number of people benefiting from the opportunities for urban design training could not be obtained in the time available, especially those for which there was a choice of optional modules relating to urban design, or attendance at CPD events.
Our main findings are:
Urban design and the professions
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The guidelines issued by the five professional institutions for initial professional education contain very few explicit references to urban design and they vary considerably in their form and specificity, reflecting the differing nature of the professions.
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Accreditation criteria range from the concentration on a few well-defined key areas of study in the majority of institutions to the more general and extensive description of areas of knowledge, skills and values in the case of RTPI; similarly, criteria for the assessment of professional competence in the larger group of institutions stress the organisation and management of practice.
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Changes in the aims and criteria for initial professional education require a relatively long time to have effect. They are usually precipitated by changes in the work or organisation of professional practice, resulting in a demand for new knowledge and skills, changes in the criteria, and the establishment, approval and accreditation of new or modified courses before applicants can be attracted and graduates emerge from the course.
Urban design and the providers
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The structure of accredited courses is crucial for the effective delivery of urban design. An explicit specialism on urban design in a course means acquisition of enhanced skills and a depth of awareness which need time and continuity through an iterative learning process, usually over several years: this is a comparatively rare feature, offered only in some courses. Optional modules, even if they include some which relate to aspects of urban design, are more free-ranging, intended to give students a wider choice but with no certainty that they will lead to more than a basic introduction to urban design;
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The assessment of professional competence tends to concentrate on the core principles of the management of work in practice, especially in those professions involved in detailed design, leaving little or no room for urban design;
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Continuing professional development in theory is more wide-ranging but in practice apparently follows the same pattern of a concentration on professional practice, and topics of immediate interest to individual professions. As a result urban design figures very little in the professional programmes or those offered by third parties, except under the auspices of the Urban Design Alliance and Urban Design Group.
Urban design and the students
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Accreditation of a course is probably of vital importance for applicants to courses. It is a gateway to employment, regulated by the requirements for course accreditation and the assessment of professional competence;
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Accreditation for urban design would probably have the effect of increasing enrolments on courses offering urban design as a separate subject or as a strong specialism in one of the existing forms of professionally accredited courses;
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Approaches to accreditation include full accreditation by an independent body or, preferably, by making training for urban design a more explicit element within the guidelines issued by the institutions for course accreditation and for the assessment of professional competence.
The challenge for training for urban design
The scope of training for urban design is wide, as indicated by the involvement of members of all five professions, and by the range of knowledge and skills in the urban design template. The comparison of the template with the accredited courses identified a number of gaps in comprehension and skills:
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between contextual knowledge of urban design and either the design activity or the processes of implementation;
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between the formulation of design proposals and the means for their implementation;
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between the realms of national, regional and city-wide policy and the better understood levels of site planning, development projects and the public realm.
Pointers for discussion
We proposed eleven pointers for discussion about the future provision of training in urban design.
Initial professional education
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The professional institutions to make appreciation of urban design a requirement for course accreditation.
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The RIBA, RTPI and LI, to encourage universities to develop urban design specialisms within accredited courses especially in those centres able to deliver courses covering more than one professional field.
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The professional institutions to promote the development of interdisciplinary courses relevant to urban design. University faculties, schools and departments offering courses in, or relevant to urban design, to also promote interdisciplinary studies, courses and research in urban design.
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Universities to improve information sources on the nature and content of the education and training they offer related to urban design and explore ways of encouraging the take-up of courses through flexible and innovative methods of course delivery including the use of the internet.
Non-accredited urban design courses
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Government, in association with the funding councils, to provide additional resources for maintaining and improving the provision of non-accredited courses, and to encourage student enrolment.
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Universities to continue to develop innovative ways of increasing student participation and enrolment. including part-time, block-release and distant learning modes of study.
Professional practice experience and continuing professional development
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The professions and UDAL to initiate a review into the requirements, provision and effectiveness of CPD as a vehicle for promoting widespread awareness of urban design. Pending this review, to encourage the promotion of events dedicated to urban design issues, especially events organised on an inter-professional basis.
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The professions to explicitly recognise involvement in urban design as a legitimate activity in their requirements for post-qualification practice experience.
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The professions to make urban design a regular feature of their professional publications, on web sites and through the media.
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The professions to encourage the development of specialist professional development (SPD) courses and programmes in urban design involving a more protracted and coherent programme of study than is customary through CPD; drawing on the programmes and resources of universities and other providers.
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UDAL to facilitate the creation of an inter-professional certificate in urban design to be awarded to members of the affiliated professional institutions who complete recognised programmes of studies short of the award of a degree or diploma with the aim of encouraging practitioners to undertake a specialist course of study.
The full research report can be viewed at: http://www.planning.detr.gov.uk/urbandesign/training/index.htm.
The views expressed in both the report and this article represent those of the research team, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. #
Alan Rowley and Lyn Davies
Department of Land Management and Development,
The University of Reading
1 PricewaterhouseCoopers (1999) Regional centres of urban development: A feasibility study, The Urban Task Force, London.
