Manchester-based Urbed closes

Urban, Environment, and Design said that the employee-owned cooperative had no choice but to shut down, citing the completion of multiple projects and difficulty in public sector tendering in a post-Covid environment.

The announcement of Urbed’s closure in 2023 was made on Twitter and on the consultancy’s website yesterday.

It is with great sadness that we announce that URBED will close early in the new year. Thank you to everyone: clients, collaborators, friends and colleagues who we have worked with over the years.

Closing statement here:https://t.co/3pHZiiTfor pic.twitter.com/zP32n2wyOJ

— urbed (@URBEDmcr) December 1, 2022

Urbed was created in 2006, but has its roots in Urban and Economic Development, which was formed in 1976. The urban design consultancy has been a key player in shaping and developing regeneration projects and strategies across the country.

Based in Manchester, Urbed is the author of the National Model Design Code and aided the government in creating the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. In 2020, the consultancy was chosen to write the National Model Design Code. Urbed won the Wolfson Economics Prize in 2014 for its work arguing for a Garden Cities Act to help reduce the need for Green Belt development.

The closure of Urbed will not impact Urbed Trust, according to the group. Urbed Trust is run by Nicholas Falk and is a separate company. Urbed+, a research lab at Manchester School of Architecture, will also continue its work.

In a statement on its website, Urbed wrote: “It is particularly sad to see the closure of a practice that has been influential in so many fields. Our values including cooperative management, collaborative work with local communities, environmental consciousness, and sustainable urbanism influenced everything we did and how we ran the company.

“Thank you to everyone: clients, collaborators, friends, and colleagues who we have worked with over the years. It’s been a great experience and we are sure that Urbed’s influence will live on through the Trust, Urbed+, and in the future careers of our people as they go on to great things.

“We look forward to seeing the exciting things that grow out of this legacy and hope to work with our collaborators again.”