The engineering and infrastructure advisory firm’s global director, excellence and expertise Dr Kourosh Kayvani said that creative and innovative design was needed to underpin engineering and engineered solutions as the world became “increasingly complex, ambiguous and volatile”
Aurecon’s inaugural design directors are Dr Harry Asche (tunnels), John Hilton (bridges), John Leech (industrial machines), Paul Stephenson (manufacturing), Dr Verno Jonker (water resources), Dr Andy Davids (tall buildings), Stephen Logan (building mechanical and electrical) and Julian Briggs (water and wastewater treatment).
Computing and robotics have “disrupted” blue-collar businesses just as they are doing with professional services companies, and Aurecon has responded with a multi-faceted approach, including a focus on innovation, digital and design thinking.
Kayvani said design was more than having an understanding of technical specifications and applying these to deliver new infrastructure.
“Great design is about coming to a challenge without preconceived ideas or rigid sets of rules. It is about imagining what can be and then creating solutions to deliver great outcomes for clients and stakeholders,” he said.
“In recent years in our industry, the power of design has been subsumed by too much focus on conventional systems and narrowly-defined functional elements, rather than exploring holistic options and incubating innovation to create unique design solutions.”
Kayvani said Aurecon’s design directors would focus on finding and solving problems for clients and explore the “essence of great design, just as the best design engineers did in the past”
“In helping our clients navigate uncertainty, Aurecon embraces the view that delivering truly meaningful design solutions requires acknowledging the importance of human attributes like observation, creativity, as well as a deep understanding of, and empathy with, stakeholders’ desires and needs,” Kayvani said.
“Building strong, design-focused relationships with our clients means empowering our best designers and allowing them to imagine and connect deeply with projects.
“Our creative objective is to conceptualise, provoke, refine, plan and deliver excellence across the lifecycle of client’s projects.”
