2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering, like architecture and art & design, is well served by creativity. Architecture programs, both building and landscape, emphasize creativity and encourage exploration of the student’s capacities for creative design through intensive immersion in “studio culture.” Although art & design programs do not typically tout the benefits of studio culture to the degree that architecture programs do (e.g. [1]), studio classes also play an important role in most art & design programs. Studio inculcates an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity, cooperative learning, collaboration, and respectful consideration of new ideas and multiple points of view. Such attributes would contribute to the quality of teamwork encountered in the multidisciplinary design-team environment in which engineers typically function today.
The author teaches courses that primarily support a Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board (LAAB)-accredited [2] Landscape Architecture undergraduate program housed in the University of Delaware’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. His courses, all cross-listed in landscape architecture and civil engineering, often have a mix of landscape architecture and engineering students simultaneously enrolled. Engineering students in civil, environmental, and construction engineering are represented. Data are examined that indicate the studio format promotes enhanced student learning in at least one important common element of the courses: mastery-based problem sets designed to improve student analytical abilities and technical skills. The data, gathered for two courses over 8 semesters and for 257 students clearly show that students master more of the problem set material under the studio/flipped classroom format.
This paper examines the typical structure of studios in architecture and landscape architecture programs and discusses some observations the author has had with use of the studio format in his courses. The complementary nature of studio and the flipped classroom are examined. The positive influence of studio culture on creativity, collaboration, cooperative learning, and the engineering design process are considered. Recommendations are proposed for incorporation of studio format courses in engineering programs beyond the obvious application in senior design courses.