The increasing complexity of design makes it necessary to consider different ways to design projects. In connection with the Integral designresearch project for professional in the Dutch building industry, we developed an educational project, the master project integral design.Interaction between practice, research and education forms the core of the integral approach. Therefore the concept of the integral designworkshop for professionals was implemented within the start-up workshop of our multidisciplinary master project. The basis of this project,which serves as a learning-by-doing start-up workshop for master students, is the Integral Design method with its use of morphologicaloverviews. The different design assignment all were related to the design of zero energy buildings. These complex tasks require earlycollaboration of all design disciplines involved in the conceptual building design. Master students from architecture, building physics, buildingservices, building technology and structural engineering participated in these projects. The master project Integral design was initiated by thechair of Building Services in the 2005/06 academic year and since then was held every year. The master students from architecture,building physics, building services, building technology and structural engineering were offered the opportunity to participate. The frame workof the approach will be described as well as the positive effect on the collaboration between the design team's members as result of themorphological frame work. During the last years experienced professionals were participating in the start-up workshops which enabled tocompare the students with professionals directly. Also the method was applied in a real project setting which allowed another comparisonbetween the results of students and professionals.