Building Bridges for Engineering Education: The Experience of Partnership With Building Industry for Sustainable Solutions

Due to a demand for more sustainability, with as ultimate goal Zero Emission Buildings, building design becomes more complex. Building design transfers from a mainly architect led process into a approach for multi-disciplinary design teams to cope with the growing complexity of the process. A supportive design method was developed in cooperation with the Dutch professional organizations of architects and consulting engineers. The design method provides overview and helps to structure the communication and reflection between design team members. The design method is focused on sustainability and the creation of sustainable solutions in the conceptual phase of building design. After testing the method in workshops as part of a training program in industry, the design method was transferred and applied at the department of architecture for master students for their multidisciplinary Master project Integral Design. The workshops became part of the permanent professional education program of the Dutch society of architects, several in-company workshops for industry were held and a course is now being developed for the Dutch society of building services engineers. So the partnership with building industry let to the developed design support method which acted as a kind of bridge for engineering education.