ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, DESIGNING:
A CASE FOR INTEGRATIVE PROJECT-BASED CURRICULUM

Within the design- and architectural discourses, concepts of ‘project’ and ‘interdisciplinarity’ have been much debated in recent years. No conceptual closures, however, have been reached neither in ways in which ‘project’ can be theorized as an object of research and study, nor in ways in which ‘interdisciplinarity’ —and for that matter any form of systematic and methodical integration of disciplinary knowledges and methods of research— can be understood as a way of configuring the ‘project’ both as the site of knowledge and as an ideal vehicle of integration.

This presentation will first discuss the theoretical, philosophical and epistemological issues at play in conceptualizing integrative agendas in project-driven educational environments in both architecture and design schools. It will also unpack the terms ‘project,’ ‘integration,’ and ‘interdisciplinarity’ and situate them etymologically, historically, and conceptually. Claims for integration commonly develop along the two axes: integration of theory and practice, and integration of knowledges and methods across disciplinary boundaries. The argument for integration will be supported by scholarly references, institutional recommendations, as well as practical concerns for developing a more adequate design education capable of responding to increasingly interdisciplinary (i.e. integrative) context for all critical design practices in the 21st century.

The presentation will then discuss conceptual and logistical issues at play in designing integrative curricula in architecture and design programs, and will discuss institutional precedents and challenges. Based on author’s extensive experience in teaching integrative design studios, the presentation will point at the methodological steps the author has employed towards integrating theories and methods from a variety of design- and other disciplines, such are engineering, business, public policy, management, or law, through hands-on collaborations with colleagues from those disciplines. The presentation will also discuss two studio projects in order to unearth intersections (both within and without the design disciplines) students had encountered in the process that had produced fundamental changes in students’ ways of understanding and approaching the process of designing, as well as in ideas and expectations of their future course of study and future professional practice(s).  The two projects discussed will be the following: a collaborative, interdisciplinary graduate studio at the University of Texas at Austin, where students from different design disciplines worked together with engineering and MBA students on an immediately applicable community project;  and a cross-disciplinary graduate studio at the New School University, where graduate architecture students worked together with graduate students of public policy and non-profit management on a community development project, in collaboration with a non-profit organization.

The presentation will conclude by summarizing all the above with the outline for an educational model of project-driven integrative studios and curricula applicable in architecture and design schools, as well as in the educational and institutional settings where such programs reside. The presentations will also discuss criteria for evaluation of project-driven integrative studios in relation to the degree to which: they enable a re-appraisal of accepted disciplinary conventions; enhance students’ educational experiences by synthesizing theories, methods and modes of practice through a hands-on approach; make a critical difference in the world by contributing to an immediate positive change in their community(ies); and by doing so, effectively reconfigure the relationship between discourse, disaster, disorder and designing.