Interdisciplinary learning in real estate education: The case of the urban redevelopment game

Fundamental changes in economy, demography, technology, climate and society create tremendous challenges for practitioners involved in the shaping the built environment. Politicians, planners, real estate professionals, engineers, architects and others need to anticipate diverse transitions and increasing uncertainty associated with urban development processes. Many of the problems faced in cities today do not neatly follow the disciplinary boundaries of our academies or professions. To solve these so-called wicked problem, professionals often require diversified knowledge to understand the different dimensions of urban problems and their potential solutions. However, traditional education programs on real estate and urban development are usually developed from a specific disciplinary viewpoint and intent to train students to specialise in one discipline. They often pay limited attention to help students develop skills and the capacity to integrate and synthesize knowledge and identify appropriate courses of action. Interdisciplinary education programmes are proposed to be an appropriate solution that makes connections and integrate knowledge across fields of expertise and handle managerial uncertainty.

This research examines how interdisciplinary education is organised within programme the Urban Redevelopment Game course as part of the Management in the Built Environment master curriculum (Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology). The research aims to answer: To what extent does the urban redevelopment game course enable students to have an interdisciplinary learning experience? Based on course evaluations and discussions it was found that the course : attempts to imitate the reality and complexity of urban development processes; emphasise the experience of negotiations bringing awareness of various actor interests and disciplines involved; and connects theory with practice by applying theoretical concepts to an empirical study location. Through the form of role simulation, students not only acquire in-depth knowledge, but also receive mentorship to integrate and synthesize knowledge from different discipline.

What is also interesting to highlight the use of competition between teams and in roles greatly enhances students’ motivation and efforts. It is argued that the didactical lessons learned from this course on interdisciplinary learning might be of interest for real estate education courses and further improvements.