Bridging Disciplinary Difference: Considering the Student Perspective on an Architecture-Engineering Design Collaboration

Research highlights the need for educational models that integrate disciplines early in their education to better prepare students for industry challenges. This paper investigates a collaborative tutorial that merges first-year engineering and architecture coursework at a large, publicly-funded university, co-authored by students and instructors. By gathering student perspectives on obstacles within this interdisciplinary environment, we propose pedagogical interventions to strengthen transdisciplinary awareness. Using a dialogical, student-centred approach, data were collected through reflective exercises in which student-authors identified common challenges and produced course recommendations. Preliminary results suggest meaningful potential course design changes based on student recommendations, while illuminating the student perspective, and thereby framing future data collection in this area.