Assessing Integration and Project Performance in Student Teams in Teaching Sustainable Built Environment

The existing architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry has a fragmented nature where each team member works in isolation away from a whole-systems thinking. It is a challenge to produce sustainable buildings with systems optimization and multi-disciplinary collaboration among different disciplines. It is therefore crucial to help AEC students, learn how to exchange information and work in teams for effective design and construction of sustainable buildings. This paper presents a senior level course, taught at Michigan State University that utilizes a teamwork approach to teach sustainable built environment practices. The study tests the proposition that integrated student teams produce more comprehensive outputs for sustainable projects, by using mixed methods of data collection: observations, interviews and social network analysis. The results showed that teams with high degree of interaction, reliance, and trust came up with creative sustainable solutions and had better articulation for every aspect of the project, and its problems.