Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Design Project

This course is the final project of the minor Integrated Infrastructure Design (IID) where the acquired theoretic knowledge and design skills of former courses will come together in an assignment for a challenging design issue. This design issue is related to several infrastructural interventions within the transport and/or water system and its environmental context and should result in an integrated infrastructure design. The assignment will be provided by an organization from the domain of infrastructures, mobility and environment where representatives will act in the role of commissioner.

The focus of the design issue will be on an infrastructural object or artefact like a bridge, tunnel, viaduct, dike, station or other civil structure which is characterized by its function, form, construction, materials and its architectural expression. This infrastructure should be well integrated within the transport and/or water system like a route, traverse or waterway and within the urban fabric and/or natural environment. The students will work autonomously in teams composed by different disciplinary backgrounds on basis of an project plan which must be set-up by the teams. Each team will work on a different design issue.

The teams will (re)define the design issue and objectives, explore and analyze the environmental and societal stakeholder context for its possibilities, constraints and conditions. Lenses such as functionality, sustainability, spatial quality, perception and/or added value should be deployed as a guiding design principle. The findings and conclusions of the analysis must be translated, next to the functional and technical requirements of the (infra-)structures itself, into a coherent vision and related design objectives, specifications and criteria considering the involved scales and overall integration. The design alternatives and its final design should be evaluated against objectives, specifications and (multi)criteria and should be an expression of an integrated design.

The final design and report will be assessed with respect to the way student teams were able to deal with the: (re)definition of the design issue and objectives; analysis including findings and conclusions; vision, design decisions and arguments; and ultimately with the synthesis/creation of an integrated infrastructure design which facilitates societal and economical needs and activities. This as a result of a collaborative and multidisciplinary design process which will also part of the assessment.