Architecture and sustainability as autonomous techniques in Interdisciplinary Education

As the skills required to execute complex projects require greater specialisation, so there is an imperative towards strategies that engender effective understanding and collaboration between built environment disciplines. There is a perception that taught courses are too specialist in nature, not reflecting the diverse skill sets to meet the challenges currently facing the building industry (Gann, Salter et al. 1999). Rethink- ing Construction identifies building processes as a 'series of sequential and largely separate operations' (Egan, Great Britain. Department of the Environment et al. 1998). The implication here is that a lack of integration at all levels of the industry embeds low levels of productivity and profitability in comparison with other economic sec- tors. The complex nature of contemporary building ensures that multidisciplinarity, defined as co-contributions between disciplines, is pervasive and ingrained within the procurement process. The concept of interdisciplinarity, the appropriation of skills and knowledge between disciplines, is more relevant to this study. At the heart of this lies the education of architects, a process that is perceived as having an 'introverted perspective where architects are often driven by their own achievements and peer group recognition rather than responding to client and market needs' (RIBA 2005). There is a danger however that such prevailing commentaries on the state of the architectural profession mask the potential for the useful employment of transdisciplinary tech- niques from architecture to allied engineering, surveying and project management disciplines.