The Urban Design Group (UDG) is a membership charity open to all who care about the quality of life in our cities, towns and villages and believe that raising standards of urban design is central to its improvement. The UDG believes that good urban design depends upon successful collaboration between all those who shape the built environment, whatever their professional or personal background.

The Urban Design Group is committed to:

• Improving the quality of life for people who live and work in cities, towns and villages

• Providing high quality information on best practice in urban design through: a quarterly journal Urban Design, a free electronic news service Urban Update; free on-line lectures kindly hosted by Urbannous www.urbannous.org.uk, running events and workshops, and an annual non-profitmaking conference.

• Providing a focus for the dissemination of research to practitioners in order to increase impact; and for relaying research needs to academia.

• Improving the professional standards in urban design and urban designers.

• Supporting decision makers in making long term decisions about the quality of the towns and cities for which they are responsible

• Promoting collaboration within the urban design process and between the professions.

• Raising standards in urban design practice.

• Developing a network of urban designers both nationally and internationally