Reshaping design by going beyond technical specifications

27 July 2016 - The Global Director, Excellence & Expertise of engineering and infrastructure advisory firm Aurecon, Dr Kourosh Kayvani, today announced the appointment of eight Design Directors as the firm continues to elevate its investment in Design as a source of competitive advantage.

According to Dr Kayvani, as the world becomes increasingly complex, ambiguous and volatile, creative and innovative design needs to underpin engineering and engineered solutions.

“Design is more than having an understanding of technical specifications and applying these to deliver new infrastructure,” said Dr Kayvani.

“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.”

“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,” said Dr Kayvani. 

In the same way that computing and robotics have disrupted blue collar businesses, they are disrupting professional services companies today. For engineers and infrastructure advisors, this disruption comes in many forms and Aurecon’s response is multi-faceted, including a focus on innovation, digital and design thinking. 

“Aurecon’s Design Directors are leading practitioners, representing the pinnacle of technical mastery within our company,” said Dr Kayvani. 

“As Design Directors, these experts will focus on problem finding and problem solving for our clients and will 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.”

“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.” 

“Aurecon’s philosophy is to embrace, not fear business and marketplace disruption. Our Design Directors have deep technical, project and client relationship skills. These experts are the ‘custodians’ of the quality of our global design solutions.”

“Our Design Directors offer our clients a channel through which they can question everything, seek to understand change and partner in order to deliver great projects,” said Global CEO Giam Swiegers. 

“Great design, doesn’t happen in isolation. Responding to feedback from clients, we identified that if you want to create exemplar, memorable and highly valued projects, it’s essential to engage and explore ideas. Our Design Directors will bring this to our clients and their projects,” added Swiegers.

Meet our inaugural Aurecon Design Directors ›