Consultancy + Research Lab
Ombuds ensures local voices are heard early and clearly — through deep research, creative engagement, and participatory planning. As urban planners, researchers, and advocates, we help shape your story and your projects to reflect shared values, so that your community is your coalition.
We thrive in collaborative spaces — whether building on an existing idea or crafting something new. And if you’re reading this thinking, I’d love to work with them — well, ditto.
what we do
Urban Planning
We conduct in-depth research, generate data-driven insights, and design practical, impact-driven interventions to complex urban challenges.
Community Engagement
We partner with organizations, institutions, and community groups to co-design and develop projects that respond to unique urban issues.
Research
Whether it’s your project or ours, we develop and research projects around topics that light us up.
how we do it
On-Call Experts
Project Partners
Go-To Team
Whether you need a few focused hours of support, an out-of-house team, or a partner through a full project, we’re built to flex.
design as inquiry
We see design not just as a means of making, but as a method of asking better questions — about how we live, who we include, and what futures we choose to shape. Our research lab investigates the role of design in addressing complex social challenges, grounding our work in lived experience, critical reflection, and interdisciplinary collaboration. We organize our inquiry around three themes — culture, democracy, and wellness — that help us explore the relationships between people, place, and power.
