Role of multi-disciplinary project studies in promoting sustainability within the Built Environment Degree programmes

Abstract

The need to contribute to the sustainability agenda is increasingly becoming a key requisite for both academics and practitioners in the built environment disciplines. The triple bottom line indicators of sustainability involve the consideration and collative optimisation of environmental, social and economic aspects of projects. Therefore, it is of vital importance that the current and future built environment professionals are able to ensure that they provide sustainable built environment solutions. Higher education institutions which offer built environment degree programmes use different approaches to achieve this requirement. Multi-Disciplinary Project Studies (MDPs) have been identified as a way of imparting such knowledge and practices for the built environment students. The principal aim of this paper is to discuss two approaches in delivering multi-disciplinary projected studies adopted in two higher education organisations in the UK. Firstly, the paper aims to identify the key components of the sustainability agenda, while explaining how the delivery of multi-disciplinary project modules can be contributed to it. Secondly, it discusses two different approaches for multidisciplinary projects and analyses how each approach contributes to imparting the skills and knowledge to develop sustainable built environment solutions. Finally the opportunities opened up challenges encountered in both models, and the implications to teaching and the industry practices are discussed. A literature review on pedagogical teaching and participant observations were the main methods used to collect data. The preliminary findings indicate the positive role of the MDPs in contributing to the sustainability agenda. Further research and innovation is required to overcome the challenges of organisation and assessment, and greater integration with Building Information Modelling (BIM).