The College of Design’s interdisciplinary option studios give students a taste of the real world while providing an opportunity to build their skills and increase their confidence in their abilities.

This year, the option studios available to students focus more on collaboration between senior architects, landscape architects, community regional planners, graphic, interior designers and other graduate disciplines.

Any senior or graduate student from any discipline or any university can enroll for these classes.

“This class pushes students out of comfort zones, broadens and opens new ways to think about individual professions as students,” said Bruce Bassler, associate professor of architecture, who teaches the design/build option studio.

A meeting to discuss which option studios are being offered in spring 2012 will begin at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Kocimski Auditorium in the College of Design building. Faculty will present descriptions of each of the 14 options that students can choose.

Bassler, associate professor in architecture, hails the option-studio experience as unique.

“One must rely on experiences you have in the past — that’s how we get better at what we do,” he said. “Try something different and unique. Find a specific focus, be involved with diversity.”

Bassler’s goal for his option studio is “to build confidence in problem-solving.”

“Fourteen or 15 years ago, the dean provided funds and asked to do a design/build option studio, where real budget, real clients and real time constraints come to life. This creates a unique learning curve,” Bassler said.

Many students are scared to dive in, he said, adding that he has seen the fear in his students’ eyes. “They think they can’t,” and it’s a huge gratification when the project is finished, he said.

One of Bassler’s previous students who was supposed to create a shelving display in the College of Design thought he couldn’t do it and was full of fear, Bassler said. As the project progressed, the student gained confidence.

A fabricator for the shelf design called after the student had finished his design and said it was the best he’s ever seen. Before the design/build studio, the student worked in an architecture firm for many summers. The architects told Bassler that the student seemed very tentative, but the summer after he completed the design/build studio, the architects at the firm said they saw a huge difference in the student’s confidence in making quick decisions.

This year, Bassler’s design/build studio takes more time than the other studio options. His students will travel to South Sioux City, Neb., six times to actually build cabins, but food and lodging are paid for. It’s hands-on and students learn how to put materials together as far as construction goes.

In the past, Bassler’s design/build students have redesigned the College of Design’s third- and fifth-floor landings in the College of Design. The size of the class varies, but usually is 18 to 20 students.

Architecture professor Lynn Paxson, who teaches the service-learning studio option, said option studios give students an opportunity to work with interdisciplinary professions in different age groups, including graduates, undergraduates and different bachelor degrees.

Paxson’s studio works with a tribal community or nation. Students work with Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, board of regions and the Tribal Government. Students will travel to Oklahoma.

“Our focus is sustainable/green design,” Paxson said.

Option studios also allow students to work with a diversity of colleagues, Paxson said. One studio option last year was made up of students from the Midwestern part of the United States, China, East India, Chile, Japan and Australia.

Jihyun Song, assistant professor of interior design, will teach the health care option studio. Students will travel to Omaha to focus on hospital design and work with two architecture firms, HDR and Gensler.

Students in the hospitality option will travel to Miami in January. Thirty-two to 36 students will form eight or nine four-person teams. Each team will include at least one student from each discipline who will work together to design a hotel. Cigdem Akkurt, associate professor of interior design, and Jason Alread, associate professor of architecture, will teach this option together.

“This is the first time two instructors from different disciplines are leading an option studio,” Akkurt said.

Lori Brunner, assistant professor of interior design, will teach the research methods option, where students will learn how to do research by observing photos and physical traces for surveys, studying case study methodologies and experimentation.

The faculty’s goal in the curriculum is to have design students start and end in interdisciplinary studios throughout their college education. The College of Design is one of three design colleges in the world that have all its disciplines under one roof.

Once students gather descriptions of all option studios, Marwan Ghandour, associate dean of academic programs who also serves as director of design studies program, will take each students’ top three choices and each student will be placed in the studio option that is best suited for the design team.

Graphic designers and community regional planning students are not required to take an option studio. Architecture and landscape architecture students, however, are required to take the option studio, and for the first time, interior designers are required as well.