• Co-hosted with InvestKL, Arcadis leaders and participants from Kuala Lumpur’s public agencies joined forces to co-create innovative solutions to support improving liveability in Kuala Lumpur.

• Design thinking serves as the backbone of the four-day workshop, while digital technology and prototyping facilitated the process throughout.

• At the end of the four-day program, Arcadis co-presented with city officials three innovative solutions to enhance Kuala Lumpur’s liveability to local YB Fahmi Fadzil and Ambassador of the Netherlands to Malaysia.

Arcadis, held its first Deep Orange co-creation and innovation workshop in Asia, co-hosted with InvestKL. Working with Kuala Lumpur’s (KL) public officials, the program worked towards developing feasible solutions to improve the city’s livability in the areas of affordable housing, urban transportation and construction safety.

Held in the Malaysian capital from 16-19 July 2018, the four-day intensive program brought city officials and Arcadis experts together using design thinking – a method for creative problem solving that uses ideation, rapid prototyping and validation. Supported by digital technology, eco-system partners and subject matter experts from KL, the teams worked rapidly to co-create solutions.

At the end of Deep Orange, Arcadis and the city officials co-created three innovative solutions that aim to improve KL’s livability.

• A platform that focuses on affordable housing for future citizens of KL addressed through two perspectives. Firstly, the platform will focus on the human side of engaging and changing behaviours around money, savings and planning for their future with a focus on transparency around credit scoring. In parallel, the platform will also be data enabled allowing public institutions and city funds to provide financing to investable citizens. This data will also be used to improve the urban planning of housing.
• An end-to-end technology enabled service to drive the use of public transport in KL. Using an app platform, the prototype will enable residents of KL to plan for efficient mobility around the ‘first’ and ’last’ mile of citizens journey and enhanced safety by connecting public transport options to private ride hailing services underpinned by data.
• A connected technology system enabled by innovative tools such as drones and safety app to safeguard construction safety. Using real-time live data, this system will monitor safety amongst construction teams to make better decisions and reduce the number of fatalities.

These prototype solutions were presented to Invest KL, the local YB Fahmi Fadzil and the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Malaysia Karen Mossenlechner to highlight the potential pathways to accelerate livability in KL enabled by innovation. The solutions will be further scoped by Arcadis and the respective authorities to explore their feasibility and implementation.

Deep Orange, the fifth in its global series, is a flagship co-creation and innovation program developed and hosted by Arcadis. The program is based on the fundamental principles of design thinking, which enables participants to take an outside in approach to problem solving and co-creating solutions to address a particular challenge.

Arcadis is delighted to have brought Deep Orange for the first time to Asia as it is a unique approach for the construction, engineering and consultancy industry to take the first steps into digitalization. Patrick van Hoof, Global Director Digital Innovation, Arcadis said:

“Deep Orange is about bringing decision makers together to facilitate solving complex cities challenges. Our multi-disciplinary teams are using design thinking and design sprints to diverge and converge, creating a powerful new way to accelerate the development process to finding solutions and improving quality of life in cities.”

Penny Murphy, Regional Head Marketing & Communications, Arcadis Asia shares how it support our passion of improving quality of life in cities:

“In the age of digital disruption there are often too many noises during every decision-making process. At our bespoke Deep Orange workshop, design thinking remains the backbone of our activities, guiding us to co-develop sound, optimal and feasible solutions that address business needs in today’s digital age. We are delighted to have collaborated with InvestKL and our participants at Deep Orange, exchanging ideas and co-creating innovative solutions to improving livability in KL."

This flagship co-creation and innovation program represents Arcadis’ latest move towards its strategy to become the industry leaders in digitally enabled client solutions and to create the cities of the future while improving quality of life.