Arcadis hosts its first co-creation and innovation program in Asia with InvestKL

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 4-day workshop, while digital technology and prototyping improve the process throughout
At the end of the four-day program, the three teams developed three innovative solutions that enhance Kuala Lumpur’s livability.

July 23, 2018 – Arcadis, the leading global Design & Consultancy for natural and built assets, held its first Deep Orange program in Asia, co-hosted with InvestKL, in Kuala Lumpur from 16 to 19 July. Deep Orange, the fifth in its global series, is a flagship co-creation and innovation program developed and hosted by Arcadis.

Deep Orange is based on the fundamental principles of design thinking and through a four-day process, enable participants to take an outside in approach to problem solve and co-create solutions to a particular challenge.

The four-day program was an intensive week- each day the team focused on specific elements of design thinking such as ideation, rapid prototyping and validation. Supporting this process was the exploration of digital technology, eco- partners and subject matter experts throughout to enhance the experience. At the end of the co-creation program, the three teams developed three solutions with the aim to improve KL’s livability. These solutions include:

A platform that focuses on affordable housing for the future citizens of KL addressed through two perspectives. Firstly, the platform focused on the human centric side to engage and change behaviours around money, savings and planning for their future with a focus on transparency around credit scoring. In parallel, the platform was also data enabled allowing the institutions and city funds to better lend against investable citizens but also utilise the data to improve the urban planning of housing.
An end to end technology enabled service that addressed the first and last mile issues to drive uptake of public transport in KL. Using an app platform, the prototype enabled residents of KL to plan for efficient mobility and safety. This solution connected public transport to private ride hailing services all underpinned by data.
A connected technology system enabled by innovative tools such as drones to safeguard construction safety. Using real time live data it tracked and helped construction teams to make better decisions to reduce the number of fatalities.

These prototype solutions were presented to Invest KL and to the local YP Fahmi Fadzil to highlight the potential solutions to accelerate livability in KL enabled by innovation and will be further scoped with each team and the respective authorities to explore their feasibility and implementation.

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

“Deep Orange is about bringing decision makers together to facilitate solving complex cities challenges. The fact that our multi-disciplinary teams, by using design thinking and design sprints to diverge, creates a powerful experience that accelerates the development process to finding solutions and improving quality of life in cities.”

Success stories from previous Arcadis’ Deep Orange programme include collaborating with New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in the development of a mobile application that aggregates real-time customer information, and shares with road operators for real-time operations and services.

Another session in Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, brought together a cross-disciplinary team from Arcadis, CallisonRTKL, IBM and Accenture and the city’s planning authority to conceive and prototype a powerful predictive planning tool to better meet future needs and challenges from the region’s exponential growth.

“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 innovation solutions to improving livability in KL “said Penny Murphy, Regional Head Marketing & Communications

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 improving quality of life.