How architecture schools can prepare students for multidisciplinary teamwork

Last week MIT hosted an alumni event that celebrated the 150th anniversary of the institute inaugurating the country’s first architecture program. As a graduate of MIT and featured speaker for the evening, I used the occasion to discuss the evolution of the MIT School of Architecture and its contributions to the expanded role of architecture in society.

When describing MIT’s impact on both academia and the practice of architecture, I think we can quickly point to the series of firsts. Among these include architecture student, Sophia Hayden, being the first woman to graduate from MIT -- decades before many schools would first start accepting women. Two years later, in 1890, MIT student Robert Robinson Taylor would become the first African American to graduate with an accredited degree in architecture.  

However, what I think is an untold story is the series of milestones that are reflective of the school’s recognition that the built environment is continuously evolving. Over the decades as the world has seen significant demographic, urbanization, technology, and policy shifts, the field of architecture has changed from being purely about design. As this change took place, MIT never missed a beat, keeping a finger on the pulse of essential perspectives that all go into creating better places. MIT architecture continued to grow by launching the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in the early twentieth century, followed by the creation of the Media Lab in the 1980s. In the following years, it would also introduce the university’s first Master of Science in Real Estate degree program. Just a few months ago the school announced the creation of a new undergraduate program that combines urban planning and computer science, reflecting how scientists are currently using real time data and artificial intelligence to reshape cities.

Coming full circle, in the 15 years since the Urban Land Institute (ULI) launched its ULI Hines Student Competition, an annual contest that gives graduate student teams the chance to devise a masterplan design for an actual large-scale site. Since the initial years of the ideas competition, multidisciplinary MIT student teams representing architecture, planning, real estate, and business programs have regularly participated and been selected as finalists many times. Obviously, cross-collaborative training between students in different programs has long been a part of the educational culture at MIT.

You can’t tell the history of architecture without also telling the story of how MIT has evolved and led new approaches to the built environment. As buildings and cities have become more complex, a successful design has required more interdisciplinary collaboration. Building to human experience and accommodating for changes in climate, demographics, mobility patterns, and technology innovations have increasingly needed the cooperation of those in many professions. The reality of land use and real estate development is that it involves the architect, planner, developer, government official, and others working together.

We are experiencing an era of rapid change that will require us to rethink how people experience all aspects of their lives. As technology becomes more intertwined with our lives while disrupting business, we will need to alter how we examine its potential for designing better buildings and cities. As the boundaries between what we define as urban and suburban continue to blur, we will have to work with a variety of experts to find solutions for issues connected with housing, inequality, and transportation.

Real estate development requires us move out of our disciplinary silos and understand how our different sets of knowledge can help us solve our land use challenges. We can become even more innovative as practitioners if we first foster multidisciplinary interaction at the university-level and embrace the changing forces shaping where we work and enjoy our lives. These changes are becoming more complex, and we will have to work together, collaborate across disciplines, and challenge one another to create the cities of the future.