Facilitating interdisciplinary design education through case histories

The design and engineering professions are characterized by multifaceted, interdisciplinary problems requiring teams comprised of architects, engineers, and constructors. The unique attributes of individual locations, regulatory requirements, and owner preferences require interdisciplinary teams to cooperate throughout the design and building process to ensure that all requirements are satisfied. In contrast to this professional environment, engineering and design educational environments are characterized by strict disciplinary boundaries. Minimal interaction occurs within the educational framework of the engineering or design curriculum. This paper introduces one approach to reducing these boundaries and introducing interdisciplinary tools into design education. The paper introduces an interdisciplinary research effort being conducted at Georgia Tech to create comprehensive, interdisciplinary case studies highlighting the diverse participants required to complete a complex building project. Complementing this effort is the development of a computer-based environment with the capability to both present case histories to interdisciplinary teams of students in multiple formats and provide the flexibility to support individual student exploration. Finally, the paper addresses the challenges and issues facing the design and engineering education community in the process of integrating interdisciplinary educational experiences into a traditionally segregated educational curriculum.