Even though architects and engineers both declare that they are designers, how they define design and the ways they use to create a new thing are really vary widely. If those two groups are working together, they will create the most memorable and impressive buildings, however. This is what makes interdisciplinary design attractive. Today, interdisciplinary design is becoming more and more important in complex, multi-faceted and globally driven world. Now, let us talking about what interdisciplinary design is.

Firstly, one of the definitions of interdisciplinary is working across disciplines. When working with a big project, you will be immersed in both quantitative and qualitative market research to explore design ideas and to better understand the impact of design on people and the environment. You will learn to identify relevant trends and build future scenarios in search of innovative opportunities. That is why those big projects are team-based and competitively structured.  The design problems are complex requiring an interdisciplinary team to complete rather than the isolated work of individual designers.

Another definition is working in an interdisciplinary process. That is to say, when working with one project process; you would use different skills to deal with problems.  Steven Cox, a founding principal and creative director of Vancouver-based Cause + Affect Strategy and Design, said that the most rewarding thing is the project which needs work on across a wide scope of media. When he interact with a brand, the only way he can guarantee a holistic brand experience for his clients is to do it all himself. Fortunately, Cox has architectural background and he is known as much knowledge for branding and digital work. (Clark, 2011). On the other hand, as an interdisciplinary course of science and technology and culture art, industrial design has multiple perspectives, multiple methods and the characteristics of strong practicality in dealing with problems. Today, with the development of modernization and globalization, industrial design will become the important base of human liberation and development, also the power of promoting economic development and social progress. Like Charles Eames and Ray Eames, at their time, they are one of the most famous industrial designers. They design almost everything about life such as the Lounge Chair, Ottoman, House of Cards and Case Study House. Their design works go across multiple disciplines: furniture, psychology, architecture and so on. They also made a process of working with a product. That’s the most important contribution to an interdisciplinary works.

Make a general survey of the design history, after the World War II, designers who from European, America and Japan are mostly working in an interdisciplinary way. No one can be a pure designer who just works with one field. Market needs designers who have multidisciplinary skills and can work smooth with other field designers because clients need more. So in these days, this topic of the great opportunity in interdisciplinary design is talked by people everywhere.

Interdisciplinary design is the future design, which can develop the capability of comprehensive knowledge, needs to go beyond the original major boundary.

Reference

Clark, N. (2011, Mar. – Apr.). Wearing Many Hats. Design Edge, 12, 11.

Harvard Graduate School of Design – Homepage. (n.d.). Harvard Graduate School of Design – Homepage. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/projects/interdisciplinary-design-new-lessons-from-architecture-and.html

Interdisciplinary Design. (n.d.).Interdisciplinary Design. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from http://www.collegeforcreativestudies.edu/academics/graduate-programs-mfa/interdisciplinary-design

尽管建筑师们和工程师们都宣称他们是设计师，但他们却有不同的方式来定义他们的设计以及他们有相差甚远的方式来创造新事物。一旦建筑师和工程师合作起来来，他们将能创造最难忘最令人钦佩的建筑。这就是跨学科设计最吸引人的原因之一。如今，跨学科设计在这个复杂的，多面的，全球化的世界上显得越来越重要。现在，让我们来谈谈什么是跨学科设计。

首先，跨学科设计的一项定义是不同学科的人一起工作。做一个大项目的时候，如果只有一个人，那必将陷于大量定制定性的市场调查以求拓展设计思维以及更好的去理解设计中设计的人与环境的关系，同时你还要在调查中去定义一个创新机遇的明确的目标以及未来情景。这就是为什么那些大工程常常是基于一个团队来完成。比起一个人单独工作，一个跨学科的设计团队在处理设计时产生的问题总是更加得心应手。

跨学科设计的另一个定义是在一个工作中使用跨学科的程序。这就是说，在一个设计过程中，你需要用不同的技能去处理问题。温哥华“原因影响”策略和设计公司的主要发起人和创意总监史蒂文·科克斯曾说过：“做值得去做的工作就是那些需要涉及多种媒介的工作。”做品牌设计的时候，为了得到完整的品牌体验，他唯一能为他的客户做的就是亲自去参与交谈与调查。幸运的是，科克斯有建筑师的背景以及很多关于品牌设计和数字工作的经验。此外，工业设计作为一个科学技术与文化艺术交叉的学科，在解决问题的时候具有多角度、多方法和实践性强等特点。如今，随着社会现代化与全球化的发展，工业设计将成为人类发展的重要基础和标志。

在我来加拿大之前，我在大学的专业是工业设计，毕业后在一个学院教机械设计。在一开始学工业设计的时候，我总是疑惑于为什么在学三维软件之外我还得学习平面软件甚至市场营销。但是后来，我渐渐明白了没有人能做一个纯粹的设计师。客户有多种多样的需求，于是市场也就需要那些能够跨学科工作或者能顺利的团队合作的设计师。也正是如此，最近关于跨学科设计的讨论一直没有停下。

跨学科设计是未来设计的趋势，它能帮助社会发展一种全方位的知识，同时也需要设计师走出自身专业原有的界限。