Experiences with a Course on Collaborative Design on Distance

In conceptual design of architectural artefacts, designers from different disciplines work together. Multi-disciplinary collaboration is required when buildings and their construction have a complex nature. If this collaboration is not effective and efficient, it might lead to the construction of buildings that clients disapprove cost too much regarding the delivered quality and extend the throughput time as well as raise failure cost. Collaboration in design take place in physical space, as well as in distributed, or virtual environments. Virtual design teams use a range of ICT tools to support both synchronous and asynchronous communication. While these tools are designed to facilitate collaboration, the collaboration process still requires planning and organis ation, which is an activity that students and professionals need to learn. In current practice there is a need for designers and design managers with competences to collaborate in design and to organis e distributed collaboration processes.