Applied Urban Design: A Contextually Responsive Approach

Applied Urban Design combines why we design and who we design for, with how we design, by providing the reader with a comprehensive and accessible bespoke framework for both understanding and practicing urban design in a contextually responsive manner from appraisal to design delivery. The framework is presented across four distinct steps, covering analysis at strategic and local scales; the urban design program; design development; and technical design. The authors unpack the functional blueprints, liveable qualities, contextual dynamics, and technical components of quality urban design, identifying the role of urban designers in shaping spaces and places across differing local contexts through a responsive and multiscalar approach. International best practice examples and two original ’live’ case studies in Aalborg, Denmark and Manchester, UK demonstrate the application of the framework across differing scales and contexts - each supported by authors own images and graphics that illustrate the broad range of urban design visualisation techniques and methods.

Visually compelling and insightful, Applied Urban Design is for all who seek to understand, demand, and create people-centred, high-quality, contextually responsive places and spaces.

Dr. Philip Black is Director of the Manchester Urban Design LAB (MUD-Lab) and Senior Lecturer in Urban Design
and Head of Urban Design Programmes at the University of Manchester, UK. He is co-author of The Urban Design
Process with Dr Taki Sonbli. Philip has an extensive track record of research and publications on applied urban design
with a particular focus on design quality, design control/governance, and urban design process and professional
practice.

Dr. Michael Martin is a Lecturer in Urban Design and Planning and Director of the MA Urban Design and Planning
at the University of Sheffield. Previously he was an Assistant Professor in Urban Design at Aalborg University, Denmark.
Michael’s research and publications in urban design cover a range of themes specialising in child-friendly cities,
sustainable mobility, urban regeneration, temporary urbanism, and placemaking processes.

Mr. Robert Phillips is a Director at Urban Imprint Ltd, a planning and design consultancy in Macclesfield, UK, and an
Honorary Lecturer in Urban Design at University of Manchester. Bob is a chartered town planner and urban designer
who has been involved in delivering planning and design projects for a broad range of clients and companies.

Dr. Taki Sonbli is Manager of the Manchester Urban Design LAB, and the Technical Lead Specialist for all urban
design programmes at University of Manchester. Taki is co-author of The Urban Design Process with Dr Philip Black
and has also published in the areas of culturally sensitive urban design, and the graphical language of urban space.