How we can help create your great places for people

Connected thinking

Our planners, engineers, and project and program managers have taken lead roles on delivering many of the world’s highest-profile infrastructure and development projects. Yet design and management are just the tip of a deep iceberg. Clients have access to our vast network of local and internationally recognized environmentalists, cost consultants, economists, project finance advisors, business strategists, digital innovators, and more. They work with each other and with you to save money and time, reduce risks, increase efficiency, and advance best practice — to achieve great social, environmental, and economic outcomes.

Helping clients reduce the environmental impacts of their projects, drive efficiency, and become more sustainable is core to what we do. As part of that, for the last 25 years we have been at the leading edge of the carbon agenda.

To ensure a neighborhood fulfills its social, economic, cultural, and environmental potential, the community needs to help shape design and delivery, so community and stakeholder engagement is a priority from the start of a project.

We’re helping the City of Vancouver to turn a stretch of disused rail corridor into a multimodal greenway that connects neighborhoods and popular destinations, and provides space for clean travel, gatherings, physical activity, and enjoying nature. We consulted widely with families, people with disabilities, and Indigenous peoples, with their input incorporated into the design concepts.

In Bristol, UK, we master-planned the regeneration of the Temple Quarter, which is centered around the modernization of Temple Meads railway station. It sets out the big picture for the site — the arrangement of new homes, connectivity, workplaces, and business spaces, shops, bars, and restaurants — and was developed after close engagement and consultation with local residents, transportation network operators, and businesses.

For the Sydney Metro, we used virtual reality technology to walk 100 volunteer Sydneysiders through a virtual station. Their insights on wayfinding and safety were fed early into the design process, improving the connection between the structure and its end users.

From experience

High-quality, affordable housing is high on the political agenda in many cities. So too is improving health and well-being by creating safe neighborhoods, improving air quality, creating attractive open spaces for physical activity, and providing community facilities for socializing. Essentially, the focus is on placemaking for lasting social benefit. We have experience and expertise in all these areas.

Social, environmental, and economic: We work with many clients — public and private — to unlock the potential of underutilized land in urban areas. For example, we’re supporting Transport for London (TfL) as it seeks to realize the potential of its property portfolio, through the creation of high-quality sustainable developments that will create thousands of homes, drive economic growth, and deliver positive social outcomes across the city.

Green infrastructure: In Philadelphia, we worked with the city’s water department on its green infrastructure programme. Like many older cities, much of Philadelphia is served by combined sewers that carry both sewage and stormwater. When it rains heavily or there is rapid snow melt, the sewers are overloaded and discharge into local rivers. We designed ways of holding water back to avoid this – extending curbs to include vegetated infiltration trenches and planters that collect drainage from the street. The result is less runoff and pollution, creating greener streets and a cleaner river for Philadelphians.

Sustainability strategies: In Australia, we are developing regenerative design guidelines for Transport for New South Wales as the agency seeks to drive positive social outcomes through its ongoing development activities.

Reducing carbon: Moata Carbon Portal is our design optioneering tool to identify capital and operational carbon "hot spots" in projects and to develop the lowest-carbon, best-value solutions. It is used from the early stages of project development, where key decisions are made, and to help deliver carbon and cost savings, to project delivery and beyond.

Digital solutions: Carbon Portal is just one of growing suite of digital solutions to automate and speed up the design, development and delivery of our projects. All are hosted on our digital platform Moata. Moata Geospatial, for example, enables stakeholders to collaborate around geospatial data in a common data environment and build a digital twin — digital representations of physical things — bringing benefits to clients, operators, and community stakeholders at every stage of the lifecycle of a building or infrastructure asset.

Modern methods of construction: We are passionate about efficient, progressive design solutions. Integral to that is the adoption of modern methods of construction, such as design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA). Offsite construction and onsite delivery can deliver high-quality projects more efficiently and more quickly, and for less cost. DfMA can also reduce disruption to communities and cut material waste and whole-life carbon. Some 70% of components — from structural and flooring systems to stairs, elevators, and bathrooms — can be manufactured offsite, reducing construction time on site by up to two thirds, improving build quality and worker safety.