ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the scope of urban design at a local scale and the work of the urban designer in creating urban design frameworks, briefs and masterplans. While design guides and design codes are primarily intended to provide a framework for development control in respect of individual or small groups of new buildings, design briefs and masterplans are prepared in order to provide a coordinated controlling framework for the development of an urban area or site. The urban design process in many ways parallels the building design process in that it is about the organisation of space and routes and the creation of hierarchies. However, the scale is different. Site planning is effected through the generation of an urban design brief or masterplan, illustrating a set of building ‘footprints’ and three-dimensional massing, together with some explanation of the qualities of the areas between these buildings.
