For much of the last century, the modus operandi of the architect evolved from one who traditionally had a craftsman-like relation to the client to a new type of professional, grounded in a commitment to fine design but equally aware of high technologies, human dynamics, politics, and business. In other words, twentieth-century architecture is rooted in the interdisciplinary. Through collaboration that embraces interdisciplinary learning, we can meet the challenges of the university, the profession, and the community in two fundamental ways. First, we must assure that students receive a generous orientation to the intellectual expectations, curricular rationale, and learning resources of the entire university. Second, we must encourage students to look beyond traditional design activities as an essential component of the professional curriculums.
General education provides much more than simple exposure to different fields of study.
Specific skills of thought and expression the critical thinking and writing that are imbedded within courses across our curriculums are requisite domains of knowledge for preparing designers to undertake a broad range of services and responsibilities. Changes in professional practice, and the cultural context in which it is situated, demand architects and landscape architects who can integrate ideas from across disciplines to illuminate themes, issues, and social problems that influence the management of and intervention in the made-environment. These broader perspectives and outlooks resonate through the design studios, still the heart of the professional curriculums, where their potential to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration as a paradigm for the 21st century is richest. Research centers and community design centers are long established exemplars for making cross-disciplinary connections and natural arenas for application of collaborative paradigms. Again this summer, teams of students directed by faculty members Tad Gloeckler and Laura Terry, made a difference working with the communities of Cotter and Piggott.