Building on years of bespoke tool development and optimisation across planning and design projects in the UK and internationally, Prior + Partners’ innovations in digital technology leverage advanced data analytics to empower leaders, developers, and planners in creating more sustainable and responsive places.
Integrating local insight with spatial analysis, AI, machine learning, and big data tools, our Digital Innovation offer allows clients to gain a profound understanding of how their places are evolving, react with increased agility and confidence, and develop strategies that lead to better place-based outcomes.
“By processing, mapping and analysing spatial, demographic, socioeconomic, and health and wellbeing data, we help uncover patterns and trends at every scale, from regional to local,” says Abhi Acharya, Head of Digital Innovation at Prior + Partners. “Our focus is on humanising data. We help clients understand the needs of their place, surface hidden opportunities and risks, and tell compelling, evidence-based stories about their communities.’’
Prior + Partners’ sophisticated interactive tools and models allow rapid and evidenced exploration of strategic growth options across countries and regions through environmental impact assessments, dynamic land capacity assessment and scenario testing. At a more granular scale, we analyse elements like pedestrian flow, movement network accessibility and land use distribution to develop sustainable design frameworks ensuring the design intent is successfully carried through to implementation.
This robust data-driven ecosystem provides a strong foundation for Prior + Partners’ core expertise areas across masterplanning, planning and economics, unlocking opportunities for a more sustainable future. “What sets us apart is how we use data to reveal the bigger picture. We bring together insights from across sectors to help clients understand impact clearly and act with confidence. Our tools are intuitive, our methods transparent, and we see every project as a shared journey of discovery.” says Abhi Acharya.
Prior + Partners’ Digital Innovation offer includes:
- Place Portrait
A digitally enabled evidence-base powered by AI; - Place Insights
Data-driven insights to guide decision-making; - Place Scenarios
Live and dynamic scenario testing sandbox to understand impact; - Place Platform
Digitally enabling the design process from vision to delivery.
These capabilities are already embedded in some of our most significant projects, including for Welwyn Hatfield where we have developed the Place Portrait digital evidence base for the borough that curates over 90 datasets into an intuitive interface to reveal insights into people, place, environment, mobility, infrastructure, and health across the region.
Meanwhile, in AlUla, Saudia Arabia, we have created the pioneering “AlUla Development Hub”, an interactive web-based platform that augments the clients planning and design process, by curating an interconnected digital ecosystem comprising of interactive webmaps, dashboards and various easy to use tools that provide streamlined access to existing evidence and live analytics to aid decision-making and support the sustainable development of a globally significant archaeological tourism destination.
The formal articulation of our Digital Innovation offer reinforces Prior + Partners’ commitment to supporting both private and public sector clients, in the UK and internationally, with the tools needed to tackle complex place-based challenges and unlock social, economic and environmental value.
