Page 33 - Energize October 2022

NEWS

Zutari to showcase its design thinking

journey at d-school AFRIKA opening

s a pioneer of design significant work to support cities to
thinking in Africa, leading become more resilient in the face of
Aconsulting engineering and climate change and other challenges
infrastructure advisory firm Zutari across its main markets of Water,
will be a key participant at the 2022 Energy, Resources, Built Environment
d.confestival in Cape Town from 12 and Transport. Its solution-finding
to 14 October 2022. Hosted by the approach seeks to answer four key
international Hasso Plattner d-school questions: What is desirable to
Afrika at the University of Cape Town people? What is technically feasible?
(UCT), the occasion not only marks What is financially viable? And what
the first design thinking conference is environmentally sustainable?
in Africa but will also see the official As part of a discovery tour of
opening of a new purpose-built Cape Town’s innovation and design
6-Star Green-rated d-school building thinking ecosystem, delegates
on the UCT campus. of the d.confestival will have the
The d.confestival is a unique opportunity to visit the Zutari office
hybrid event centred around design at Century City on 13 October.
thinking that follows on from the Wim van Schalkwyk Under the theme ‘The Resilient
2012 and 2017 events hosted in City. Engineered’, Zutari will share
Potsdam, Germany. It is supported participants in the process of design, how it is partnering with the City of
by the Global Design Thinking exposing opportunities for innovation. Cape Town to make the City more
Alliance, which also celebrates “We have learned many lessons in resilient. This will include a panel
its fifth birthday. The ‘confestival’ bringing this approach into the African discussion with members of Zutari’s
term denotes a combination of the infrastructure engineering context. Management and Sustainability team
traditional academic conference and Partnering with clients like the City of and City of Cape Town officials. Three
the interactive, creative elements Cape Town has allowed us to explore diverse case studies will showcase
of a festival. Sessions will include new ways of tackling complex city the broad impact of a people-
keynote presentations, panel problems like public housing, water centred and planet-minded design
discussions, interactive workshops resilience and social inclusion.” The approach in the City.
and a discovery tour of the Cape benefits of this way of thinking and Van Schalkwyk concludes that
Town innovation ecosystem. doing have yielded impactful results Zutari is excited to participate in
“As Zutari, we have been on a – now entrenched in how Zutari this internationally significant event
design thinking journey for the last approaches all its work. at UCT. “As one of the first major
six years,” says Wim van Schalkwyk, Van Schalkwyk argues that good engineering consultancy firms to
Growth, Eminence and Innovation design cannot stop with placing ‘people fully embrace design thinking as a
Lead at Zutari. “It is deeply ingrained at the centre’. “We must remember mechanism for innovation in Africa,
in our firm’s purpose to co-create that people do not live in a vacuum. We we remain committed to co-creating
an engineered impact that enables live on a planet; and this planet has its a positive impact on the continent.”
environments, communities and boundaries. At Zutari we believe that
economies to thrive.” designing and engineering resilient cities Contact Rashree Maharaj, Zutari,
Design thinking places people require us to be both people-centred Phone 012 427-2000,
at the centre of the design process. and planet-minded.” Rashree.Maharaj@zutari.com
It acknowledges end users as active Zutari has been involved with https://www.zutari.com

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