Learning Spatial Design through Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Spatial design at interior, site, city and regional scales is increasingly complex, and will continue to be so with the uncertainty of the climate crisis and the growing place-based intricacies of pluralist societies. In response to this complexity, professional design practice has pursued new ways of working. More design projects are becoming more interdisciplinary and less hierarchically structured, involving more collaborative project teams with a variety of backgrounds in architecture, urban design, landscape and interior architecture, engineering, ecological sciences and art. At universities, the design-learning studio which pedagogically champions the authentic replication of design practice projects, has also bifurcated. While teaching design through the traditional disciplinary-based problem-solving processes of an individual project is still understandably commonplace, a new type of studio has emerged, led by group work and interdisciplinary collaborations, and framed by the complexity of a seemingly irreconcilable problematic subject. This emergent domain warrants more research into pedagogical structures, teaching techniques and learning activities; and this paper explains such investigations undertaken through the live educational practice of two interdisciplinary studios in two years, drawing conclusions from student feedback gathered via questionnaires and focus group interviews. The findings suggest that teaching formats in this type of studio need to facilitate a balance between trusting relationships and immersive experiences; and that effective teaching techniques entail the development of more accessible communication techniques in conceptual diagramming and linguistic idiom.