In our urban designs we are committed to laying the foundations for sustainable communities. We recognise good urban design can transform a population’s quality of life living and working in such a place. Designs stem from an understanding of the context and, from a desire to define a sense of place from the geography, topography and from local (historic) social and commercial activity. In the case of Brownfield situations this means unearthing dormant spatial patterns that we can 'build' on. Today, perhaps the greatest challenge we face as designers is to manage the political imperative to increase urban residential densities and, that these can develop into rich neighbourhoods.

On the ground our energies are focussed on achieving permeable, coherent and intelligible urban grain and, in forging meaningful pedestrian connections where security plays a part but does not constrain the desired character of a place. Public transport and the car play a part, but it is vital that the traffic engineers do not choke the public realm. Our work stresses the landscape component, incorporating gardens and courtyards, squares and parks – here we place a lot of emphasis on the environment and on the 'happiness' that these can bring to inhabitants.

Schemes include the 7-hectare St Mary’s Island redevelopment of the historic Chatham dockyards and the 34-hectare Rochester Riverside. The first, an international competition-winning scheme, creates more than 400 new homes. In the delivery of low-rise mass housing the scheme seeks not to become a housing estate. With Rochester Riverside we create a new mixed-use urban quarter, a new neighbourhood close to, but not in conflict with, the historic centre- our objective being to regenerate the city without seeking to replace or upstage it. 

Kirkgate is on the edge of Leeds city centre, next to the historic Corn Exchange, and incorporates the listed First White Cloth Hall –the scheme creates two new public squares and a broad mix of uses. In Waterford the waterfront site for a new cultural quarter is on the north bank of the river, on the opposite bank and, remote from the city.

New Cross Gate, Buckland Court in Shoreditch and Stratford, all in London, are more intimate schemes that play on their humanity and wit to engender a feeling of happiness. The first two are both for Government 'New Deal for Communities' agencies – both stress the importance of green space at New Cross Gate in regenerating an area blighted by traffic and crime and in Shoreditch in making improvements to a 1960s inner city housing estate. Both are mandated by the impact that urban design can have on the environment (reduced carbon emissions), on health, security, education and employment. Stratford, ahead of 2012, celebrates Olympic achievement conveying ideas about record-breaking dimensions and times in public space. 

'Park + Jog' reinvents the A6 between Salford and Manchester proposing a radical commuting strategy.  The new linear park it creates regenerates neighbourhoods, bringing activity and value to blighted sections of the city, and radically altering the political situation for the suburb. In 2006 it was shown at the Van Alen Institute in New York as part of the international exhibition 'The Good Life – New Public Spaces for Recreation'.