Rethinking the design studio: art + architecture: a case study of collaboration in an interdisciplinary context

This paper relates directly to the Conference's theme of Building Partnerships and the need to Rethink the Design Studio. It contributes to the ongoing debate about public art in the urban realm, and the potential that new collaborative experiences and interdisciplinary studio models present in an educational context. It discusses the potential that partnering and collaboration between architects and artists has for a creative interaction with a city's cultural fabric. It introduces and examines a selection of site-specific installation works in Brisbane and Berlin, which were the results of collaborative practices initiated by the author. These temporary works provoke our comfortable notions of life in cities as well as challenge our understanding of the roles of architecture and art, and their modus operandi. The first part of the paper explores the method of 'drawing together' different disciplines, and explains the differences between three collaborative design studio models, which the author coordinated. Each model represents a unique way of drawing different disciplines together, and of opening conversations between and beyond compartmentalized traditions of disciplines. The second part of the paper introduces a case study of two projects, both of which are collaborative exhibition projects: Art+Arch infinite, 2004, in Brisbane, and Rethinking: Space, Time, Architecture, 2002, in Berlin. Both exhibition projects were based on one of two studio models, and each installation involved the collaboration of at least one artist and one architect. This part of the paper provides insight concerning the organisational process and the interaction of the oragnisations involved and behind the scenes activity as to how the curator was able to get the different groups involved, to work together and focus on the project. While working together with a common goal opens up new arenas for artistic exploration, where do the boundaries between art and architecture begin and end? Addressing this question of discipline boundary is an essential element in an educational context of interdisciplinary pedagogy, a context in which both projects were set. The exhibitions involved teams of established and emerging artists, and students of architecture, visual arts, landscape architecture and urban design. The resulting dialogues and contemporary crossovers between the disciplines have led to new forms of collaborations and ways to understand the urban context. It has also promoted a fresh perspective on the design process, demonstrating the potential of such reciprocal realtionships. Of course there have been many other examples of collaborative work and a large extent of literature is available. Based on common terrain from both projects, the author presents the research findings and addresses such questions as: How do visual art students draw inspiration from architecture students and vice-versa (eg. intuition versus analytical approach)? How can disciplinary boundaries be best challenged and transgressed in order to critically reassess them? How might architecture and art students work together in Design+Build Studios on urban interventions in public space, in an interdisciplibary future