Interdisciplinary design education: development of an elective course in architecture and engineering departments

Abstract Collaboration among disciplines is becoming a standard practice in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. However, limited studies have addressed the involvement of interdisciplinarity into architectural undergraduate curricula. The study seeks to expand literature on this topic, namely by offering an alternative model for teaching Interdisciplinary Design Course (IDC), mainly engineering departments, with participation departments. authors hypothesize that adoption IDC, architecture students would better understanding nature AEC interdisciplinary design knowledge. aims highlight value IDC test hypothesis. A qualitative research methodology has been adopted, including experiment then application case comprising four instructors 24 from departments Faculty Cairo University. Students’ process, teamwork attitude, own experiences recorded using direct observation, interviews, surveys. Data analyzed descriptive statistics identify effectiveness challenges experiment, addition comparison traditional studio. results shown students’ satisfaction collaboration their peers other disciplines, as it boosted integrated process increased knowledge about each other’s discipline. In addition, commended much more than