BUILDING-DESIGN DECISION MAKING IN THE CONTEXT OF INTEGRATED DESIGN STUDIO: THE ROLE OF THE ENGINEER

Abstract

According to scientific literature andpractical experience, interdisciplinary design teams are anoften privileged solution for optimizing building design andfor meeting sustainability criteria. Nevertheless, someprevious studies suggest that engineering students are notprepared to play an active role in a design process,especially in its conceptual stage. Another aspectcontributing to the fragmentation of the building designprocess is the digital environment and its inappropriatenessfor interdisciplinary collaboration. This paper proposesmultidisciplinary team learning in the context of integrateddesign studio as a successful approach for both: achievingsustainable design solutions, and changing disciplinarycultures into integrated practices. The participation ofbuilding engineers in the design process is studied from twoperspectives: ideation (design ideas generated orsignificantly modified by them) and empowerment (role ofdigital representation in this process).Index Terms ⎯ Building, Integrated design, Social learning