Applying Concurrent Engineering to Remote Interdisciplinary Design: A Sustainable Tiny House Project
Elzbieta Komarzynska-Swiesciak2 ✉️, Karolina Urszula Laszczyk1 ✉️, Elisa Costamgna3 ✉️, Michal Zoltowski4 ✉️, Andrzej Kaczmarek5 ✉️, Matteo Carollo6 ✉️, Kristina Remic7 ✉️, Jan-Peter Ceglarek8 ✉️, Reinhold Bertrand9 ✉️ 1Faculty of Electronics, Photonics and Microsystems, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland 2Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland 3Politecnico di Torino, Italy 4Faculty of Electronics, Photonics and Microsystems, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland 5Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland 6Politecnico di Torino, Italy 7TU Darmstadt, Germany 8TU Darmstadt, Germany 9TU Darmstadt, Germany
Cite as: Komarzynska-Swiesciak, E., Laszczyk, K.U., Costamgna, E., Zoltowski, M., Kaczmarek, A., Carollo, M., Remic, K., Ceglarek, J. and Bertrand, R. (2025, May). Applying Concurrent Engineering to Remote Interdisciplinary Design: A Sustainable Tiny House Project. In SCS 2025, 2nd International Conference on Social Contexts of Science (p. 39). Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Poland.
Abstract
The increasing complexity of sustainable building design requires effective interdisciplinary collaboration, yet traditional methods often rely on sequential workflows, leading to inefficiencies and fragmentation between disciplines. This paper explores Concurrent Engineering (CE) as a novel approach to interdisciplinary architectural and engineering design, emphasizing its potential to revolutionize the way professionals from diverse fields collaborate in the built environment sector. While CE has been successfully applied in aerospace and manufacturing, its adoption in building design and construction remains in its early stages. This study presents an innovative implementation of Concurrent Engineering in an academic setting, applied to the development of a Tiny Sustainable House with a closed water cycle and an autonomous IoT-based environmental management system. Conducted within the framework of the UNITE! Alliance, the project engaged students from architecture, mechatronics, mechanics, and environmental engineering across Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, and TU Darmstadt. By working in a remote, concurrent digital environment, participants integrated expertise from multiple disciplines in real-time, employing CE principles to ensure optimal efficiency, sustainability, and circular economy strategies in the design process. The study provides critical insights into the role of Concurrent Engineering in interdisciplinary building design, identifying both its advantages—enhanced knowledge exchange, reduced iteration times, and improved integration of technical and sustainability aspects—and challenges, such as digital coordination barriers and decision-making complexities in virtual settings. Findings suggest that CE has the potential to transform interdisciplinary collaboration for an architectural design that includes the rainwater purification and wastewater treatment, power supply for electricity and heat as well as manageable smart home system, fostering a more synchronized, data-driven, and self-sufficient approach to building development. By bridging the gap between Concurrent Engineering and building design, this paper contributes to the broader discourse on interdisciplinary methodologies, demonstrating how technology-driven, parallel collaboration models can significantly improve both educational outcomes and real-world architectural and engineering practices.
Keywords
Concurrent engineering, Interdisciplinary collaboration, Sustainable building design, Self-sufficient building design, IoT in architecture and construction
Current status of the research is: Work-in-progress