ABSTRACT
Urban design can take place in a variety of development contexts – public, private, community and mixed development contexts. Increasingly the skills of the urban designer are called upon by other public or quasi-public development agencies and public-private partnerships, e.g. central and local regeneration agencies and development area authorities, housing associations and large public landowners such as health authorities. For private sector clients, large institutional landowners, house-builders, corporations and other commercial organisations, urban design is called for at the feasibility and masterplanning stages in much the same way as for public development and regeneration agencies and partnerships. Local empowerment tends to be on a small, local scale and therefore is unlikely to require the services of an urban designer. Urban design skills, however, are likely to be useful where an initiative involves a series of linked local sites or where realising the development potential of a site or building requires a good understanding of the urban context.
