Interdisciplinary Design Experience for the Masses: Fid-Bau Portal

Interdisciplinary Design Experience for the Masses

Nuttall, Brent / Nelson, Jill / Estes, Allen C.

The Architectural Engineering Department (ARCE) at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) is one of the few ABET accredited engineering programs in the United States that exists outside a college of engineering. Housed in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED), ARCE resides with the departments of Architecture (ARCH), Construction Management (CM), Landscape Architecture (LA), and City and Regional Planning (CRP). The college has a 60 year tradition of interdisciplinary collaboration at the lower division levels. In order to enhance the collaboration of disciplines at the upper division levels, the college has recently committed to providing an upper division interdisciplinary experience for every student in the form of an interdisciplinary team oriented, project based five unit studio laboratory. The challenges in creating and executing such an upper division interdisciplinary course are immense and fall into three major areas: institutional, logistical and pedagogical. Institutional issues include support from the university and multiple department heads. Logistical issues range from finding open time within the multiple departments to offer the course to the seemingly mundane tasks of ensuring all students are in the correct location at the correct time. Pedagogically, the course needs a unified and integrated approach that must be agreed to and implemented by a team of professors. Traditionally professors work as individuals and team teaching of this magnitude is a paradigm shift that requires a significant time and mental commitment. This paper addresses these three challenge areas: institutional, logistical and pedagogical. It discusses the specific issues, both good and bad, associated with this course and how they were addressed.