A Multidisciplinary Teaching Approach: Structuring A Landscape Design Course for Interior Architecture and Architecture Students

Abstract

Design related fields such as architecture, landscape architecture or interior architecture are quite intricate and it is hard to define strict boundaries in between these disciplines. Based on this idea, the curriculum of five design disciplines Architecture (Arch), Interior Architecture and Environmental Design (IAED), Industrial Design (ID), Visual Communication and Design (VCD), Fashion and Textile Design (FA) are designed in Izmir University of Economics, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design. Students of each department start their education all together and they take core design courses such as Art and Design Studio, Drawing and Representation, and History of Art and Design together in the first year. As the departments continue their curriculums separately after the first year, this multidisciplinary approach continues during the rest of the education with courses such as Furniture Design for students of IAED and ID students, of Textile Design for IAED and FA students or Drawing and Visualization courses for ARCH, IAED and ID students. The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of multidisciplinary education in design related fields with the example of the course named An Introduction to Contemporary Architectural Landscaping. Being a landscape architect and urban designer teaching in the Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design and being a part of such a diverse and multidisciplinary structure, helped to develop this course on the basic knowledge and theories of landscape design for IAED and ARCH students. The educational structure of this course is also multidisciplinary and divided into three main parts. First part is based on the technical aspects of the landscape architecture discipline and aims to teach students concepts such as hard and soft landscape materials, main stages of a landscape design project and presentation techniques. The second part of the course is based on the cultural, physiological and psychological effects of the discipline and focuses on topics ranging from the history of landscape design to the sensual and psychological effects of landscape elements, from the role of indigenous planting for sustainability to ecological restoration. Finally, the last part of the course expects students to use the technical information acquired from the first and second part of this course and combine it with their prior design education in their core design disciplines to develop a landscape architecture project on selected project sites from students' near environments. Through the multidisciplinary structure of the course, the paper highlights three important discussions. Firstly, inclusion of students from different disciplines in the same course increases the success rate of students with the help of cross-learning experiences. Secondly, during design education, having the chance of participation to courses from different disciplines help to broaden students' perspectives on problem solving during design phase. Finally, a course that incorporates technical knowledge on a design field with actual projects in environments that students experience in their everyday life increase their success rates.