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Team

We are a London-based collective of landscape architects, architects, and urbanists dedicated to enhancing public spaces and landscapes at every project scale. Our diverse, skilled, and international team is united by a shared commitment to creating places that people love.

Alexandra Steed

Alexandra Steed is a passionate landscape architect with a deep commitment to art, sustainability, and the transformative power of landscapes. As a Fellow of the Landscape Institute (FLI) and the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), she has made a lasting impact on urban environments globally over her two-decade career.

In 2013, she founded URBAN with a vision to create landscapes that bring joy and enhance well-being. Steed’s designs aim to foster meaningful connections with the natural environment and enrich people’s lives.

Beyond her practice, Steed actively advises and serves on expert panels for organisations such as the Design Council UK and the Government’s Office for Place. She shares her knowledge as a lecturer at The Bartlett, UCL, and volunteers her time to empower communities and develop inclusive public spaces through neighbourhood plans and landscape visions.

Steed’s exceptional contributions to landscape architecture have earned her prestigious awards, including the WAFX Award for innovative solutions to global challenges. She has also received The LI Award for Excellence in Tackling Climate Change and won the Best Landscape Architecture Project in the UK. Additionally, she was shortlisted for the Sir David Attenborough Award, highlighting her dedication to preserving and enhancing biodiversity and ecosystems.

With valuable previous experience as Principal of Design for AECOM London and Director of Martha Schwartz Partners’ London office, Steed is dedicated to integrating natural processes and systems into her designs. Her work and advocacy strive to combat climate change, protect ecosystems, and inspire others to appreciate and engage with the natural world.

Warren Osborne

Warren, an accomplished chartered landscape architect from the UK, boasts over 25 years of experience. His expertise encompasses diverse masterplanning endeavors and a proven track record of shepherding projects through initiation, design, and construction on a global scale. Notably, his contributions have garnered Landscape Institute and RIBA design awards, a testament to his commitment to excellence.

Before joining Urban, Warren worked together with Alexandra at Aecom as a Regional Director, further enriching his wealth of experience and collaboration.

With a keen eye on urban revitalisation, Warren’s approach extends beyond design – he uncovers the latent potential of public spaces. By enhancing connectivity, preserving habitats, and reflecting local culture, he crafts environments that foster lasting benefits for both the community and the environment. His work transcends borders, leaving a mark in the UK, Middle East, Europe, China, and the USA.

Warren’s impact blends innovation and adaptability, uniting aesthetics with functionality to enhance both human well-being and environmental sustainability. His dynamic presence in the field shapes lasting landscapes that enrich cities and communities worldwide.

Alexandra Steed / Founder

"There has never been a greater need for a landscape-led approach than now: an era where humans and nature are affecting each other’s fate in an unprecedented way."

Practice

In 2013, Alexandra founded URBAN with a vision to create landscapes that bring joy and enhance well-being.

Our Cities

More than half of the world’s people live in cities, and this number continues to grow. Our cities’ landscapes need to work hard to enrich people’s quality of life in these urban environments.

Our Countryside

At the same time, our rural and wilderness areas are being lost at unprecedented rates. In order to restore balance to the earth, and to support all of nature and its beauty, we must restore vast landscapes.

Ethos

A Fresh Approach

Our focus is on connecting people and connecting people to their environment in fresh ways. At this time in history, people and nature are converging more than ever before, and are determining each other’s fate. Showing care and compassion to all of life will allow people and nature to thrive.

An Artist’s Perspective

Art is about helping people to see, to have a new perspective, and to express something in a new way. Thus, art has an important role to play in reframing our relationship with all of nature, with an understanding that we are a part of nature, not separate from it.

Process

We work with our clients, the community, stakeholders and other professionals while at the same time learning as much as we can about the physical site, to imagine many possibilities, and then create the most elegant and meaningful landscapes for a particular place.

We listen intently, bringing many of our own ideas, but always willing to learn, modify and work with others’ contributions. The design is honed and perfected until we have found the solution that most elegantly reveals the uniqueness of a place. It is a sensitive and collaborative approach that through iteration brings out the best.

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