Cross Discipline, Cross Country: A Collaborative Design Studio Integrating Architecture And Engineering

thoughts into layman terms such that everyone could work on the same page. Students learned how valuable a well-crafted letter or e-mailed sketch could improve their communication. They also learned that well-written documents take time to produce and the additional time spent improving a letter was typically less than the time required to explain things over the phone after a poorly crafted letter was sent to their partners. The class was organized so that after the kick-off meeting, all correspondence between team members was via phone, e-mail, and instant messaging. If we think about the total design process, teams innovate where they initiate the design or process, then collaborate with others to create a seamless design, then integrate on their own using the guidelines developed in the collaboration process, and then communicate their discoveries back to the team, It’s an iterative process we can term “eye see squared” or IC 2 (innovate, collaborate, integrate, communicate). The studio was staged to facilitate this type of process.