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. Our primary goals are: to promote high standards of performance and inter-professional co-operation in planning, urban design and architecture, landscape design and all other aspects of the built environment; and to educate the relevant professions and the public in matters relating to urban design. Since our foundation in 1978, we have played a major role increasing the understanding and awareness of urban design and there have been some major successes and a transformation in the quality of existing and new development. However a great deal of development is still badly designed. More than three quarters of all planning applications in the UK are prepared by someone with no design training. Much development is designed or planned by people with little idea of how to work in an urban context. Our mission is to raise standards of education and awareness of urban design across societies both in the UK and internationally.