Careers – Do you dream of building a city? Be an Urban Designer!

What is urban design?

Since primitive man first settled down, urban design has been around in one form or another, although the term was finally coined in the 20th century. It is a mixture of landscape design, urbanism and architecture. It involves designing and planning almost every aspect of a city. An urban designer needs to incorporate streets, buildings, landscaping, public parks, the transportation system, drainage, highways, and every other aspect related to a city that can be imagined. The task is Herculean!

These professionals have to balance both aesthetics and functionality. For example, while the city or town they are working in needs to have public parks and beautiful landscapes, like artificial lakes, etc.; the city also needs to be functional and easy for people to get around.

Similarly, while street furniture such as benches, water coolers, garbage cans, signs, and street lights are important from a furniture standpoint, they are also important from the standpoint of providing civic services to people.

What does an urban planner do?

Most modern professionals in this career help plan and improve existing cities and towns. They are usually called upon by officials when a city’s population increases beyond what can be sustained with current comforts and resources.

Issues like traffic congestion, pedestrian congestion, roadside encroachments, and housing shortages or generation blight – older homes are often what require the immediate attention of city planning officials, and ultimately the services of these experts. Some other similar problems could be sewage and waste disposal systems, shortage of schools, distribution of natural resources that needs pipes like water and gas supplies.

The first step for an urban designer is to meet with city officials and discuss any necessary changes. This will also include discussion of budgets as well as current resident concerns being considered.

After this, they usually look at the plans and designs for the existing plan of the city. This allows them to find out what changes can be achieved. One of the key things that they need to keep in mind is that they want minimal intervention so as not to disturb the current daily life of the residents. They also meet with landscape designers and architects in this phase to come up with a plan for the new design of the city. After all this, they will usually do initial sketches and then use design software to prepare final plans that are very detailed and include drawings for every aspect.

Where does an urban planner work?

They usually work with large architecture studios or real estate developers. In developed countries, many municipal governments also hire individual professionals as consultants.

What are the educational requirements for a career in Urban Design?

The most common expectations in terms of degree for a career in this field is at least a bachelor’s degree in urban design or urban planning. It’s a four-year course and is usually good enough for an entry-level position. However, many experts usually earn a master’s degree and also gradually increase their education through cross-skill development, such as degrees in energy efficient design, green design, environmentally focused, etc. Aspiring urban designers are expected to take various courses in design, computer software, and mathematics. They will also need to take some courses in real estate law, ecology, architecture, and landscape architecture.