Introduction Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Carl Lejuez met with the School of Architecture & Design Dean’s Advisory Board on October 18, 2018. At the meeting, he requested a white paper from the Board that outlines the emerging trends of the architecture and design professions that could inform how the School could best prepare our students for their professional careers. In particular, he wished to understand the relevance of interdisciplinary education. Following the Provost’s charge, the Dean’s Advisory Board members were invited by the Board Chair Kathy Achelpohl to provide written perspectives. The paper was edited by Kathy Achelpohl and Kristin Cable. “Design is fundamentally a The following paper summarizes key themes raised by members of the Board problem solving activity that on the topic of the future of the professions and interdisciplinary design improves the world around us and education. Board members presented their views and examples to illustrate thus our lives. It’s an important that an integrated and interdisciplinary educational training would best serve activity that encompasses a broad range of professional fields. our students and advance the School to realize its vision (to be The Pioneering Architecture, interior design, Force for Global Impact through Design). industrial design, graphic design, exhibition design, and landscape architecture are all important contributors to the design field. Design touches everything.” Interdisciplinary Design Education is Critical to Solving David Hill Complex and Global Problems Principal, ThinkNext Design Future Direction Designers are practicing today in the context of a rapidly changing world in which societal issues, climate issues, changing global economies, and transportation disruptions are rapidly moving toward, or already have, a central place in day-to-day project work and considerations in practice. “My 19-year career in graphic Competition for designers has increased; the ability to outsource design communication has spanned functions 24/7 around the globe is getting easier and easier. The global everything from museum and marketplace and access to software has made design more competitive, and exhibit design to environmental basic design skills and understandings are no longer enough to build a career graphic design, to brand identity around. design to interior design to brand strategy development, to Accreditation requirements will be changing and likely expanding for architects advertising to business ownership. and designers to include more practice-based criteria. Design is demanding My career is, at its core, the future integration, which includes the widening geographical demands of practice with of the ‘design’ profession as we know it.” different climatological, regulatory, anthropological, cultural, and seismic contexts. Mike Hauser Founder, DesignHaus 1 Clients are hungry for designers with a broad experience set. It used to be enough for a designer to have a design backbone built on a strong portfolio of work. Today, clients are exposed to design everyday through social media, experiences (both spatial and visual), print, product, and human interaction. Clients see design touching everything now more than ever before, and they “Design is often considered a luxury or necessary evil. Both are want their design partner to be able to create all of these broad touch-points wrong. Design is a requisite for for them. solving the issues that face society and our globe. It is about Design-led thinking is being brought to spaces where design hasn’t been a key innovations in the design element as a strategy to solve more complex problems. Design-led thinking industries and construction refers to a human-centered, prototype-driven process for innovation that can industries to transform how be applied to a product, service, and business design. (Source – Cohen, R. buildings and products are March 31, 2014. Design Thinking: A Unified Framework for Innovation. Forbes. conceived, researched, modeled, Retrieved from https: https://www.forbes.com.) Steve Jobs, for example, was prototyped, documented and an early proponent of what is now called design thinking. realized. There is so much opportunity.” The design-led approach, no matter the organization or industry, allows for Steve McDowell, FAIA prototyping, failure, empathy for the human experience, and a flexibility that Director of Design, BNIM enables agility to find solutions. This trend alone will be disruptive to design practice on a global scale. In fact, several large organizations which have not historically been design-focused are quickly working to place design at the center of their decisions as they grapple with making the necessary changes to meet and exceed the quickly changing dynamic of consumers. For example, in Lyft’s efforts to completely rethink and change transportation methods and systems, they’ve hired a diverse range of designers to lead the charge. Rather “Lens, a consulting studio of than working in isolation, these designers, with equally varied backgrounds, are Shepley Bulfinch, a national architecture firm, partners with sitting next to product managers, engineers, and technologists for instant hospitals and healthcare leaders collaboration and faster solutions. (Source - Schwab, K. December 17, 2018. across the country to rethink and Lyft’s plan to win the transportation wars: Put designers in charge. Fast reinvent the patient and staff Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com.) experience. By combining stakeholder engagement, The Design Professions qualitative and quantitative As the opportunities and demands of practice rapidly evolve, design analysis, and design thinking, Lens professionals are embracing interdisciplinary design, which refers to the helps healthcare providers to collaboration of design professionals (and sometimes non-design professionals) increase performance, improve to solve problems together. healthcare outcomes and drive down costs through organizational change.” Interdisciplinary design is not a new concept for architecture firms and design firms. Leading architecture, design, and experience design firms recognized and Lauren Janney, MBA, EDAC implemented interdisciplinary design systems decades ago, which usually Principal Strategist, Lens involves a mix of architects, interior designers, planners, industrial designers, graphic designers, and other creative professionals. This was done for several reasons - initially to streamline the process and provide direct accountability to clients, and later to create solutions to help their clients express their values, innovate rapidly, and elevate their brand. 2 Designers believed that through collaboration with others, they could best “Lawrence Group, a building and discover the questions that must be asked in order to gain a greater real estate solutions company, was understanding of any design problem. In this process they recognized that when built on varied expertise with every element was in sync and carefully considered together – from the interdisciplinary collaboration. While students at KU in the late building structure and materials, to community planning and access, branding 70’s we envisioned a professional and graphics, interiors, the surrounding environment, engineering, and the practice offering clients all services larger cultural and social impact - the final outcome was more successful. related to the built environment. We felt this would As the world has grown more complex, embracing the interdisciplinary model give us a competitive edge...and has become an essential tool to address and solve the critical and complex we also wanted to spend our problems in the modern world as designers seek to help create a more resilient careers in an environment where and regenerative global community. For example, imagine a healthy and everyone could continue to grow beautiful city that generates its own renewable energy, returns all water back professionally and learn from each to nature as clean as or cleaner than when it arrived, operates without waste, other by sharing their expertise and point of view.” and protects and regenerates natural systems and species. Without designers none of this will be realized. David Ohlemeyer, AIA Founding Principal At another scale, imagine the assignment to rebuild a client’s brand through the Lawrence Group design of a holistic customer experience involving every design touch-point - from identity to the landscape. It cannot be an isolated approach. The design and design product must be fueled by insight and strategy work led by “Many design professionals qualitative and quantitative data mining. That data and the insights provided, trained in specific areas, whether it leads the design team and all of its talents down one unique path. The path be industrial design or graphic speaks specifically to the architects, interior designers, brand identity designers, design, are seeing the lines quickly landscape architects, lighting designers, print designers, marketers, web blurred as they need to extend their skill sets and collaborate designers, and product designers all working with an interdisciplinary mentality. closely with other design disciplines, and even disciplines Notable architecture and design firms which have embraced an interdisciplinary that typically would not overlap practice model include: with design. • BNIM, https://www.bnim.com/ • CannonDesign, https://www.cannondesign.com For example, if our company, an • DesignHaus,