Interdisciplinary education in the architectural design of engineering structures

Abstract

Structural engineering of buildings demonstrates a challenging combination of architectural form and structure. This phenomenon of simultaneity must be reflected in architectural education. The aim of this article is to present the teaching method in the course Engineering Structures Design Studio in the Faculty of Architecture and Design at Slovak University of Technology (STU) in Bratislava, Slovakia, under specific conditions. These conditions included: on-line teaching and a challenging assignment in the form of a case study. At the same time, the education of future architects encompassed interdisciplinarity facilitated by on-line co-operation with a foreign teacher - specialist. The study presented here was focused on the evaluation of the selected methods, and a non-hierarchical approach employed throughout the learning process and its outcomes in the Engineering Structures Design Studio course. The case studies included in the article serve as examples of two structurally and architecturally different designs for a promenade bridge over the Danube River in Bratislava, Slovakia.