What Does The Future Of Urban Design Look Like?

Urban design is a field that is constantly evolving to adapt to the new ways we choose to live. With advances in technology, our daily lives are constantly changing. Every day there comes a need for something new that can make our lives easier. Whether it's biometric technology or working from home. It’s essential that our environments keep up with these changes and allow our daily lives to go more smoothly. Urban design is one way our environments can be designed and changed to assist with these developments. So what does the future look like? How will we adapt?

In this blog, we will explain what the future of urban design looks like, keep reading to learn more.

What Is Urban Design?

Urban design covers a broad range of places, from towns and cities to residential neighbourhoods and suburbs or even the grassy play areas, industrial estates and overlooked spaces surrounding train stations, rivers and canals. Urban design covers the buildings and the spaces between them and how they are connected. It is the basis of every city and how it is able to run efficiently. Urban design requires extensive planning in order to achieve successful outcomes. It is the blueprint for how each space is shaped, illustrated and designed or how it can be improved and protected to allow for investing, development and wider society. Often, urban design is overlooked as many may assume that cities are pieced together bit by bit, but often there are changes and adaptations made to add pieces to a bigger puzzle.

Who Are Urban Designers And What Do They Do?

Urban designers are usually architects, town planners or landscape architects. They work in collaboration with others to pull together visions and ideas from developers, local communities, landscape architects, transport planners, traffic engineers and many more people. Their aim is to understand the needs and requirements of a particular space and resolve issues and conflicts to create places that work for everyone. It is a challenging task, particularly in widespread projects as there are many different people that want different things. The end result will be new places being built or a better appreciation of existing urban areas such as cities, towns and villages. Urban designers are employed by developers, local planning authorities or community groups such as neighbourhood planning groups.

Urban design helps to bridge the gap between town planning and architecture, which has previously caused problems within development. Urban designers help to create a comprehensive picture of a space and put forward proposals to demonstrate how constraints and opportunities will be responded to. They are able to pinpoint the issues within the design and create solutions to overcome them as well as ensure future problems are identified and planned for.

How Does Urban Design Help?

Urban design is essential for the development of all spaces - big or small. Whether an architect is hired to redesign a suburban neighbourhood or contribute to the development of a new town, they are vital in ensuring the project is successful.

• Urban design creates a vision to present the economic, social and environmental benefits of investment or changes at a strategic scale over a wide area and over a long period of time. A vision statement will allow everyone to see what the project intends to achieve over the next decade or two, explaining what work will be carried out and how it will benefit communities.
• Urban designers will gather data and evidence about particular places to determine what will work in the future and how viable certain changes are. This will include looking into transport, infrastructure capacity, environmental capacity issues and local community needs and values.
• Architects will use illustrative concepts to create masterplans, artists’ impressions, photomontages, 3D models and photographs of other successful places to represent what the design could look like.

Urban Design Trends

The way urban design is used is likely to change over the years. As our populations grow and more practical housing and transport are required, we are likely to see many new changes. Here’s what to look out for.

Sustainability

At the forefront of every urban designer and architect's mind is how to make urban areas sustainable, not just in their construction but also in the way they function. Urban planners, now and in the future, will need to develop cities that are sustainable, energy-efficient and ecologically friendly as well as consider issues such as climate change and resource depletion. This means they will incorporate things such as solar energy, smart grid technology and green walls and rooftops. Green walls enhance air quality, reduce the impact of the urban heat island and offer space for birds and other wildlife to live.

Technology

As technology constantly changes, we are seeing smart cities develop that are much more habitable, sustainable and efficient. In the future, we will see smart cities that can collect and analyse data that can help the city work better for its citizens' needs. For example, smart traffic solutions help to aid traffic congestion, improve air quality and enhance traffic flow in real time. Another concept is automatic smart lighting systems that alter illumination levels based on pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Many of these ideas aim to make a sustainable place that helps reduce common problems in towns and cities.

Public Space Design

We are likely to see more public space design that makes communities more livable and dynamic offering more accessible and welcoming public spaces. As humans, it's important we have spaces that improve our mental well-being by promoting exercise and fresh air as well as interactions with others. In the coming years, we are likely to see spaces designed to enhance this such as parks and plazas, bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly streets. These additional public spaces help to establish more lively and inclusive cities.

Affordable Housing

As the cost of living goes up and housing becomes more difficult to get a hold of, urban planners must create contemporary architecture that is more affordable for those who need it. Many of our cities are already overpopulated and that means that urban designers have a big job ahead of them to create building designs that actually fix the problem. They need to provide high-quality homes at a reasonable price. In the future, we will see more inclusive and accessible designs offered at a lower price to try to combat the housing crisis.

Adaptive Reuse

What is the point of tearing down perfectly good buildings just to build a new structure? Many urban developers will be reusing old buildings that are no longer being used. Structures such as office buildings can be transformed into affordable housing that helps promote sustainability as it doesn’t require any new material to be constructed. We are likely to see this a lot more in the future as a way to combat many issues we are currently facing within urban development.

Resilience

Unfortunately, we must be prepared for natural disasters that could occur. In recent years, we have seen a huge increase in natural disasters, from wildfires to earthquakes and tsunamis. Architects must bear in mind that this is a serious possibility for many cities and it will be important in the future to have prepared adequately for such events. Building designs need to be able to resist and recover from shocks and pressure that could occur. It will also need to consider the chances of social unrest, economic downturns or even war. Cities that are able to recover quickly and efficiently will reduce the negative effects on their citizens. In the future, it’s likely we will see more complex and interrelated difficulties that require more resilience. Urban designers can ensure that communities are better prepared to withstand these challenges and construct sites that are built to last.

Spatial Design Architects - ‘Architects Near Me’

Are you looking for quality building design and urban planning that will withstand the test of time? Spatial Design Architects is a contemporary architecture and building design company ready to assist you with any project. We are able to create designs that challenge issues and help to build a better future, with our clients in mind. No matter what size your project is, we would love to help. Get in touch today to start your architecture journey with our team.