Ste Taylor on Urban Design Leadership at Turley

Ste Taylor’s route is useful because it is not a neat, predictable career story. It moves through architecture, setbacks, urban design and leadership, which makes it relevant for anyone trying to turn a complicated path into a clear professional direction.

The main lesson is simple: a career setback does not have to define the next decade. It can help you work out where your judgement, interests and design skills are better used.

Watch: Ste Taylor on urban design leadership

Ste Taylor talks with Stephen Drew about setbacks, urban design, design codes and building a leadership path at Turley.

Listen: Ste Taylor on setbacks and design leadership

The audio version gives more room to the career decisions, doubts and design-code thinking behind Ste Taylor’s route.

Why this matters for designers

Architecture and urban design overlap, but they reward slightly different strengths. If you enjoy the bigger picture of place, policy, public realm and design strategy, urban design can be a serious route rather than a fallback.

• Design codes reward clarity, judgement and the ability to explain good places.
• Setbacks are easier to explain when you can show what changed afterwards.
• Leadership often grows from taking responsibility for messy, open-ended problems.
• A clear story helps employers understand why your route makes sense.

The recruiter angle

When a candidate has moved across roles or disciplines, the strongest interviews do not hide that movement. They explain it. A practice or consultancy wants to know what you learned, what you now do better and why the next step is intentional.

Next step

Watch or listen to the episode, then revisit your CV summary and portfolio introduction. If the first paragraph still reads like a generic architecture bio, make it clearer what kind of design work you are moving towards.