ABSTRACT
Historically, the typical culture or condition of the university is the separation of disciplines into stand-alone curricula. There is no overlap of studies between disciplines, even if common topics exist. The colloquial term of “silo” is used to describe this condition. This separation of disciplines also extends to the professions of the built environment. As the complexity of buildings increase, so does the information needed by the design team to manage the design and building process. What is happening in the profession is mirrored by what is happening in the university. The increase in complexity of problems, is recognized by Warren Weaver in a 1948 paper entitled “Science and Complexity”(6) . Weaver observed that (scientific) problems developed from “problems of simplicity,” in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, to “problems of disorganized complexity” in the first half of the 20th century, and “problems of organized complexity’ post-World War II. As the complexity of problems increases to our present day, so does the need to be interdisciplinary in our research. It is not possible to be stand-alone, single disciplinary and engage the full complexity of current problems.
