The difference in communication between architects and engineers and the effectiveness within integral design

Within the building industry there is a clear need for more sustainable solutions, with as ultimate goal energy positive buildings. This makes building design more complex. Building design transfers from a mainly architect led process into a multi-disciplinary design team process to cope with the growing complexity of the design tasks. A supportive design method was developed in cooperation with the Dutch professional organizations of architects and consulting engineers. The design method provides overview and helps to structure the communication between design team members. The design method is focused on the creation of proposals in the conceptual phase of building design. After testing the method in workshops as part of a training program in industry, the design method was transferred and applied at the department of architecture for master students for their multidisciplinary Master project Integral Design. In the last eight years each time a Master Projects Integral design was held in which altogether in total around nearly 200 students participated from 5 different disciplines: architecture, structural engineering, building physics, building technology and building services. The location and the type of building of the design brief changes every year but the goal of the design project remains the same: to design a net Zero Energy Building. There is a continuous evaluation and development of the supportive guidance as well as the teaching approach. The design method provides overview and helps to structure the communication and reflection between design team members. The application of the design method was focused on sustainability and the creation of new sustainable solutions in the conceptual phase of building design. Important aspect of the workshop is a two-day workshop as a start-up for the project. The set-up of the workshops makes it possible to make comparisons between the role of the architectural students and the engineering students within the workshops, their effectiveness and the way they are communicating through the provided tool during the workshops sessions: the morphological overview. A comparison is made between the way of communication (words, sketches or a combination of both) of architects and engineers and the effectiveness of the communication about the proposals to be accepted by the design team