How global collaboration delivers local success

Originally published in Middle East Consultant.

Delivering complex projects calls for more than technical expertise, it calls for strategic vision, specialist skills and a deep understanding of how to bring diverse disciplines together seamlessly. To explore what truly sets a world-class multidisciplinary consultancy apart, ME Consultant sat down with Lee French, Partner and Managing Director MENA at Cundall.

Lee, can you tell us a little about the growth and expansion of your MENA operations over the last several years? 

It has been a really exciting few years for Cundall in MENA with regards to growth and expansion. In fact, one of the most significant periods in our evolution since we opened our first office in the region in 2007. In the past two and a half years, our regional business has grown by more than 250%, which included the opening of our new offices in Bengaluru, India and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in mid-2023. We established in our new locations to complement our existing offices in Dubai, UAE and Doha, Qatar, with the primary objective of maintaining the highest levels of service for our clients while creating more opportunities for our people.

Given that Cundall has been on the ground in the MENA region for 18 years, can you tell us about the skills evolution that has enabled the business to increasingly position itself as Lead Design Consultant?

Since Cundall was established in the UK in 1976, we have always operated as a true multi-disciplinary design consultant, offering integrated engineering services to our clients across the globe. Our evolution in the MENA region has been no different. Of course, when we first opened our Dubai office in 2007, we grew the business organically, utilising our specialist expertise in disciplines across the business to support local projects. While we still collaborate globally and operate as One Cundall, over the years we have built a stronger regional offering, adding disciplines locally to respond to the Lead Design Consultant market.

In recent years, we have seen an increasing trend in MENA with the Lead Design Consultant role becoming more prominent, and Cundall are perfectly positioned to deliver this. As a true multi-disciplinary consultant, with in-house design managers, we provide the high-quality design services that clients expect and manage their interests along with other specialist consultants and key architects. Collaboration is central to our approach, and this is fundamental in developing an understanding that ensures that we never work in silos. We also recognise that every project and every client is different. Our flexibility allows us to respond accordingly, either offering specific design services or taking on leadership roles as Lead Design Consultant or Multi-Disciplinary Design Consultant.

What is the ‘Factor X’ that makes Cundall unique; can you tell us about the organisation’s values, people and culture? 

Cundall has always been an independent business. 100% owned by the Partners who work within it every day, on our projects and alongside our clients. This structure allows us to focus on what really matters: our people and our clients. Our people are at the heart of everything we do, and our philosophy has remained unchanged, rooted in the ethos set out by our founding Partners in 1976. At the same time, we continue to evolve to meet the needs of our clients and the aspirations of our people. 

Our values represent who we are as a business and are inherently people focused: we are Creative, strive for Excellence, Collaboration is key and we mean what we say with integrity. Equally fundamental to our culture is sustainability. It runs through everything we do and always has. This matters to us and it matters to our people. We recognise our duty, and opportunity, to effect change through all that we do, with sustainability and zero carbon design underpinning our work at every level.

Masterplanning is a major sector for Cundall. Can you share some examples from the MENA region where this holistic approach to development has been especially impactful?

Masterplanning is a major sector for us and an extremely important one as it allows us to effect positive change at scale. Urban planning also sits at the heart of the region's national visions - Saudi and Qatar 2030, UAE 2031 and Oman 2040. In Dubai, the 2040 Urban Plan provides even more specific direction. Across all of these, digital transformation and sustainability are central to shaping future communities and neighborhoods. Just as with zero carbon design goals, effective masterplanning enables cohesive, future-ready communities and assets by addressing environmental and social impacts while embedding resilience and foresight into development. 

We are incredibly proud to have contributed at this scale across the MENA region, and none more so than at a city level with our work on the Greater Muscat Structure Plan. In collaboration with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning (MoHUP) and a wider team of consultants, including F&M and Broadway Malayan, we re-envisioned Greater Muscat and developed a framework to guide development through to 2040. This included efficiency and resilience in the city-wide utility infrastructure network, with emphasis on renewable technology and water lifecycle, as well as creating an overarching sustainable and smart city framework. Resilient planning around flood risk and coastal change was also integral to shaping future development - essentially providing a blueprint for the future of Oman’s capital.

Part of Cundall’s strategy is to achieve zero carbon design across all projects by 2030; how will this be applied to complex masterplanning initiatives, with their many interconnected elements? 

Masterplans are the perfect place to start driving zero carbon design practices. It is at this stage - with so many stakeholders and considerations - that we can develop a framework that guides all future design stages. Many of the complexities we face in considering zero carbon designs at the building level are driven by restrictions in infrastructure, the communities or the masterplans and guidelines they sit within. 

By considering these at the masterplanning level, whether city, district or community, we can not only enable zero carbon design but also remove restrictions that might otherwise limit it. 
There are, of course, still obstacles to overcome, particularly the collective approach needed from all components and stakeholders. However, we are seeing positive change. In the UAE, for example, the new Climate Law, which came into effect in May of this year, requires everyone to support the UAE’s Net Zero 2050 commitment. Today's masterplans hold the key to unlocking the potential to achieve this tomorrow. 

At Cundall, we are taking this responsibility, and obligation, very seriously. We are transforming how we approach projects to embed designing for net zero carbon as our ‘business as usual’. Our Zero Carbon Design 2030 (ZCD2030) commitment means that by the end of the decade, all our projects will be aligned with our zero carbon design criteria driven by science-based targets. As part of that journey, we are already working with clients to produce pathways for their projects, and in our experience to date, we've found that clients absolutely value this support and recognise the scale of the challenge ahead.

How is Cundall embracing digital tools, such as AI, to enhance project delivery? 

The rapid rise of AI and generative AI goes far beyond improving efficiencies, we see it as a transformative force in how we deliver projects and in the outcomes we can achieve. It can even play a hugely transformative role in decarbonising the built environment and accelerating the transition to net zero. Used correctly, these technologies are key enablers for the next generation of smart buildings and cities. 

At Cundall, we are advancing our AI capabilities by integrating them into our operations while creating an environment where technology and human expertise work hand in hand. We recognise that while AI is a powerful tool, it is the creativity, judgement, and skills of our people that unlock its full potential. That is why we continue to invest in both innovation and talent development, ensuring our teams are equipped to thrive in a future where human ingenuity and AI technologies drive meaningful change together.

Cundall is now a global business with 29 locations around the world; how do you leverage this global expertise and international ‘work-sharing’ to give the organisation a real competitive advantage? 

As I touched on earlier, although Cundall has local offices to serve our clients, we are truly one business that operates without borders, where work sharing is just the norm for us. We recognise the importance of local expertise, but we also draw on the right talent wherever it may be in the world, empowering us to respond beyond any boundary restrictions. This agility allows us to always bring global knowledge to local contexts and tailor our support to each client's needs. 

Having been with the business for 25 years across multiple offices, I've seen first-hand how global project collaboration delivers success. There is an inherent desire at Cundall, aligned to our ethos, to support each other and bring people together, and this culture translates directly into the way we deliver projects.

Cundall has been heavily involved in project/site conception and delivery across a number of very specific sectors - and Entertainment really stands out here. Can you give us some key examples? 

Entertainment is a hugely important sector for the MENA region and the growth over the last 10-15 years has completely elevated its offering, serving both international and local tourism markets. We have been privileged to work on many attractions across the region, including contributing to Saudi Arabia's ambitious transformation plans. Over the past few years, we have partnered closely with Saudi Entertainment Ventures (SEVEN) as their destinations have come to fruition across 14 cities, including their Discovery attractions.

These projects are about delivering groundbreaking experiences that not only meet demand but do so in a way that is authentic, culturally relevant and aligned with Vision 2030’s ambition to build a thriving entertainment sector that brings joy, enriches lives, empowers communities, and inspires. A key to success in this sector is understanding the market and acknowledging the evolving needs of a very fast-moving industry and audience. This is especially true when introducing large-scale entertainment to locations experiencing it for the first time. To succeed, developments must be cutting edge, adaptable and flexible enough to be able to evolve.