Architect-Artist Collaboration in Architectural Design Studios: A Comparative Case Study of Two Experimental Projects

Abstract

The architectural profession has increasingly shifted from the model of the architect as a singular author toward collaborative and multidisciplinary modes of design. This shift has also created a need to reconsider the architectural design studio as a space where students can encounter and work through different disciplinary approaches to design. This paper examines the collaboration between artists and architects within the architectural design studio through two academic case studies conducted in the Department of Architecture and Design, COMSATS University Islamabad. The first case, A Designed Collaboration, was developed as a fourth-semester design studio in which the artist was integrated into the studio from the planning stage and contributed to a sequence of exercises moving from personal space to house and finally to an urban intervention. The second case, Design Build as a Medium of Healing and Learning, was developed in the third year as a response to the psychological impact of the Army Public School attack and used a design-build process as a means of learning, making, and collective engagement. The study is qualitative and uses textual analysis of project briefs, studio documentation, written reflections, and project descriptions. The cases are examined through roles, entry point, methods, interaction, negotiation, translation, and design transformation. The comparison indicates that multidisciplinary collaboration does not operate through a fixed model. Instead, the role of the artist changes according to the scale, intention, and demands of the project. In the first case, the artist’s role moved from designer to co-creator and eventually to a specialist in representation. In the second, the artist remained closely involved during conceptual and experimental stages, while architectural responsibilities became more prominent during construction and site management. Across both cases, the collaborative model created opportunities for students to question conventional architectural processes, expand their repertoire of design methods, and understand design as a negotiated process between ideas, users, materials, structure, and context.