Dissolving Interdisciplinary Boundaries in “Making Together”: Lessons From the Field

• In Event: Organizational Communication Research Escalator - Extended Session (Part 1)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand and deepen the reflexion about the role of communication in interdisciplinary collaboration processes which aim to achieve sustainable architectural projects. Contemporary issues related to climate change bring professionals to now consider an architectural construction as a green building, the construction sector being an important producer of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and this worldwide. This research endorses an interdisciplinary approach to architecture, based on collaborative practices, promoting the development of sustainable and green practices in the construction sector. From this premise, we consider the architectural “project” as a place and an object of communication enabling collaboration between specialists from various disciplines. To test this conceptual proposition, we based our arguments on the case study of a student competition, a competition on wood construction addressed to architecture and engineering graduates. The research results reflect the relevance of our assumptions and especially the role of action in the dissolution of disciplinary boundaries.

Author

• Marie-Claude Plourde, U du Quebec a Montréal