Impact of Team Characteristics in Learning Sustainable Built Environment Practices

The existing architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry has a fragmented nature in which each team member works in isolation away from a whole-systems thinking. It is a challenge to produce sustainable buildings with systems optimization and multidisciplinary 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 research study based on a senior level undergraduate 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 and analysis: observations, interviews, and qualitative and social network analysis. The results showed that teams with a high degree of interaction and leadership provided creative sustainable solutions and had better articulation for every aspect of the project.