RWDI’s Pioneering Thermal Comfort Work Recognised at London Planning Awards
RWDI’s work in collaboration with City of London recognised with Best Project for Sustainable Planning at Building London Planning Awards
Service: Urban Design & Masterplan Consulting
Climate-Responsive Urban Design Starts Here
Plan smarter, build better & thrive in a changing climate
Create vibrant and future-focused communities with climate-informed master planning. Our climate and performance expertise helps building designers and urban planners enhance economic activity, create a resilient and sustainable environment, and support the overall health of the community.
Whether you’re designing a campus, community, or city, our climate-smart master planning helps you design boldly, perform better, and build with confidence.
A solid masterplan looks at the big picture and incorporates all planning elements holistically, like air quality, building siting, energy consumption, noise, transportation & walk...
Ryan Danks
How our urban design and master planning services can benefit your project
Maximize the design and efficiency of your urban space
A successful masterplan doesn’t just shape a place, it brings it to life. A strong masterplan can help locate buildings, specify street layouts, and inform the placement of parks and green spaces. It can include infrastructure designs that require energy demand, renewable energy strategies, public transit, water and other sustainability measures.
Better decision-making early in design process
Smart urban planning starts with smart insights. We combine data-driven analysis with advanced modelling to give you a clear picture of your project from day one.
Our tools let you to test different scenarios, visualize potential outcomes and make confident, strategic decisions early, saving you time, reducing risk, and aligning every move with your project goals and community needs.
Reduce costs with enhanced energy efficiency and building performance
Our urban design and master planning services maximize energy efficiency from the ground up, helping you lower operating costs, improve building performance, and shrink your environmental footprint. With early-stage insights on building orientation, materials, and systems, we turn sustainability into long-term savings.
Minimize environmental risks and impact
We help reduce environmental impact and stay ahead of regulations with advanced modeling that predicts and mitigates risks like air quality issues or heat island effects. Our integrated approach builds resilience into your project, delivering sustainable outcomes for both the environment and community.
Get the whole energy picture
Understanding the full energy profile of your project is crucial for sustainable development. We use custom simulation tools to model wind, sun, thermal comfort, and energy efficiency, giving you a complete energy profile from the start. Our integrated analysis helps you balance demand and supply, cut reliance on non-renewables, and hit your sustainability targets with confidence.
How we help
Well-crafted masterplans that create efficient, comfortable, and vibrant places are built on a deep understanding of local context, especially climate. As such, our work centers every element of the masterplan supports long- performance, resilience, and livability.
cyclist in suit
woman with umbrella in wind
haze over city
Masdar City
cyclist in suit
Holistic master planning for comfortable and resilient communities
Creating comfortable, healthy, and vibrant urban environments takes more than optimizing individual elements, it requires a holistic approach. True urban performance comes from understanding how factors like air quality, noise, and climate interact, and designing spaces where these elements work in harmony to support thriving communities.
Our master planning process considers everything from air pollution and noise mitigation to thermal comfort. We focus on shaping spaces that not only support walking and cycling but also boost economic vitality by making outdoor areas more inviting and usable, whether it’s a café terrace, a performance venue, or a shaded park path. The result? Urban places that don’t just function, they thrive in a changing climate.
Speak with a master planning consultant
woman with umbrella in wind
Improve pedestrian thermal and wind comfort
Smart city planning goes beyond infrastructure. It’s about creating outdoor spaces people actually want to use. By modelling microclimates, we help urban planners design outdoor areas that are cooler, calmer, and more inviting, boosting walkability, community use, and climate resilience. Our advanced modelling predicts how heat, wind, and shade will shape the experience of a space, allowing planners to fine-tune street layouts, landscape elements, and building orientation to create more usable environments. The outcome is public spaces that drive foot traffic, support local economies, and enhance climate resilience.
This isn’t just about comfort. It’s climate resilience in action. Future-proofing cities starts with designing outdoor spaces people can enjoy year-round. When public spaces work, the whole city performs better.
Speak with a pedestrian comfort expert
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Reduce the urban heat island
Tackling the urban heat island effect is not just good environmental policy. It is essential for building livable, resilient cities. We turn data into actionable design strategies that cool cities from the ground up. Using advanced climate modelling, material analysis, and surface temperature mapping, we identify where heat builds up and why. We then advise planners on solutions that make a real impact, such as increasing vegetation, choosing better surface materials, improving layout, and enhancing airflow.
The results are measurable. Cooler streets support public health, boost pedestrian activity, reduce energy demand, and build long-term climate resilience. With the right engineering input, cities can move from heat traps to people-first environments that thrive in a changing climate.
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Masdar City
Energy modeling and optimization
Energy performance should be built into a masterplan from day one. We make this possible by modelling how design decisions like building massing, orientation, shape, and façade performance impact long-term energy use.
With our proprietary masterplan energy profiler, we model hourly performance across full year, factoring in local climate, gross floor area (GFA), floor-to-area ratio (FAR), energy conservation measures, and building occupancy schedules. The result is a detailed energy profile that helps planners make smarter, faster decisions. We then match energy demand with renewable energy options, to create a smart, integrated, and future-ready strategy that supports both efficiency and sustainability at scale.
Speak with an expertFAQs about our urban design and master planning services
Still have questions? Contact us.
Our climate and performance engineering services can significantly benefit urban planning projects by providing in-depth insights to realize a city’s unique vision. We can help improve economic viability, create livable neighborhoods, and focus on the microclimate of outdoor urban spaces. We aid in maximizing the “total comfort” of public spaces, encouraging active transportation, creating economic opportunities, and supporting community health and resilience.
We consider several factors that impact urban microclimates, including wind, sun, temperature, humidity, noise, and air quality. They refer to the combined effect of these elements as “total Comfort.” By analyzing and optimizing these factors, we help create more enjoyable and functional urban spaces.
Insights from our industry experts
RWDI Authored the Leeds Wind Guidelines
Recently introduced Leeds wind guidelines help developers evaluate the impact of new buildings on their surroundings before they are built.
Urban Planners Can Leverage Microclimate & Thermal Comfort for Outdoor Spaces
The quality of shared outdoor spaces is becoming increasingly important, especially during climate change and post-COVID lockdowns
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