Can architecture help us find our place and way in today's complex world? Can it return individuals to a whole, to a world, to a community? Developing Giedion's claim that contemporary architecture's main task is to interpret a way of life valid for our time, philosopher Karsten Harries answers that architecture should serve a common ethos. But if architecture is to meet that task, it first has to free itself from the dominant formalist approach, and get beyond the notion that its purpose is to produce endless variations of the decorated shed. In a series of cogent and balanced arguments, Harries questions the premises on which architects and theorists have long relied—premises which have contributed to architecture's current identity crisis and marginalization. He first criticizes the aesthetic approach, focusing on the problems of decoration and ornament. He then turns to the language of architecture. If the main task of architecture is indeed interpretation, in just what sense can it be said to speak, and what should it be speaking about? Expanding upon suggestions made by Martin Heidegger, Harries also considers the relationship of building to the idea and meaning of dwelling. Architecture, Harries observes, has a responsibility to community; but its ethical function is inevitably also political. He concludes by examining these seemingly paradoxical functions.

Many believe that the moral mission of architecture has been in serious decline for the last 25 years. In this important new book, Tom Spector points out the dilemmas of architectural practice and offers a theoretical and practical basis for an examination and transformation of the quandaries the profession now faces. What makes a good building or a good architect? Are there limits to an architect's ethical or legal responsibilities in a building process where architecture plays an increasingly smaller role? Is preservation a moral imperative? What happens when building codes and ethical responsibilities are in conflict? In The Ethical Architect, Spector investigates the moral underpinnings and implications of leading architectural theories, subjecting them to the analytical techniques of moral philosophy. His conclusions provide a road map to help architects make the right decision in the difficult tradeoffs that confront designers on a daily basis: Spector estimates that more than 100,000 decisions go into the design of an average sized building. The Ethical Architect is a work of theory but refers to real buildings and real-world problems. It is Spector's call-to-arms for his profession and a must-read for practicing architects and students alike.

"The Ethics of Architecture offers a short and approachable scholarly introduction to a timely question: in a world of increasing population density, how does one construct habitable spaces that promote social goals like health, happiness, environmental friendliness, and justice? What are the special ethical obligations assumed by architects? Because their work creates the basic material conditions that make all other human activity possible, architects and their associates in building enjoy vast influence on how all we live, work, play, worship, and think. With this influence comes tremendous, and not always examined, responsibility. This book addresses the range of ethical issues that architects face, with a broad understanding of ethics. Beyond strictly professional duties - transparency, technical competence, fair trading - lie more profound issues that move into aesthetic, political, and existential realms. Does an architect have a duty to create art, if not always beautiful art? Should an architect feel obliged to serve a community and not simply the client? Is social justice a possible orientation for architectural practice? Is there such a thing as feeling compelled to "shelter being" in architectural work? By taking these usually abstract questions into the region of physical creation, the book attempts a concrete reformulation of "architectural ethics" as a matter of deep reflection on the architect's role as both citizen and caretaker. Thinkers and makers discussed include Le Corbusier, Martin Heidegger, Lewis Mumford, Rem Koolhaas, Jane Jacobs, Arthur Danto, and John Rawls. An added preface addresses architectural issues arising during and after the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic"--

From theory to practice a unique, well-rounded guide to ethics fortoday s architect How does an architect assist a community in evaluating alternativedesigns? Resolve a dispute with a contractor? Take into account aproject s impact on the natural environment? When it comes to questions like these, making decisions about whatought to be done or what is the "best" or "right" solution requiresmore than sound technical knowledge and strong design talent. Itdemands a solid understanding of the ethical issues that lie at theheart of architectural practice. Ethics and the Practice of Architecture offers a complete,broad-based introduction to this crucial subject. First, itexamines basic ethical theories and their application toarchitecture, and discusses different ways of identifying ethicalcontent in architecture. Bridging the gap between theory andpractice, the second part of the book surveys differentprofessional settings and building project processes thatfrequently hold ethical concerns, and charts the ethical mandatesthat arise from them. In the final section of the book, thirty case studies explore awide range of ethical dilemmas encountered in architecturalpractice, with useful guidance on how to work through themeffectively. Arranged by topics that span the key phases of aproject from pre-design through post-occupancy evaluation, thesecase studies allow a detailed look at ethical concerns in real-lifesituations where multiple issues are often at stake. Providing a practical framework for the exploration of ethicalissues in architecture today, Ethics and the Practice ofArchitecture is an excellent resource for present and futurearchitects in all areas of the field.

In this new Architecture Brief, Ethics for Architects, Thomas Fisher presents fifty case studies representing a broad range of ethical dilemmas facing today's architects, from questions regarding which clients to work for, to the moral imperatives of reclaiming building materials for construction instead of sending them to landfills. This timely book features newly relevant interpretations adapted to the pervasive demands of globalization, sustainability, and developments in information technology. Fisher's analysis of architecture's thorniest ethical issues are written in a style that is accessible to the amateur philosopher and appealing to professional architects and students alike. Thought-provoking and essential, Ethics for Architects is required reading for any designer who wants to work responsibly in today's complex world.

At a time when climate and ethics have become so important to architectural debate, this book proposes an entirely new way for architects to engage with these core issues. Drawing on Tetsuro Watsuji‘s (1889-1960) philosophy, the book illuminates climate not as a collection of objective natural phenomena, but as a concrete form of bond in which "who we are"—the subjective human experience—is indivisibly intertwined with the natural phenomena. The book further elucidates the inter-personal nature of climatic experiences, criticizing a view that sees atmospheric effects of climate under the guise of personal experientialism and reinforcing the linkage between climate and ethos as the appropriateness of a setting for human affairs. This ethical premise of climate stretches the horizon of sustainability as pertaining not only to man’s solitary relationship with natural phenomena—a predominant trend in contemporary discourse of sustainability—but also to man’s relationship with man. Overcoming climatic determinism—regional determinism, too—and expanding the ethics of the inter-personal to the level where the whole and particulars are joined through the dialectics of the mutually-negating opposites, Jin Baek develops a new thesis engaging with the very urgent issues inherent in sustainable architecture. Crucially, the book explores examples that join climate and the dynamics of the inter-personal, including: Japanese vernacular residential architecture the white residential architecture of Richard Neutra contemporary architectural works and urban artifacts by Tadao Ando and Aldo Rossi Beautifully illustrated, this book is an important contribution to the discourse which surrounds architecture, climate and ethics and encourages the reader to think more broadly about how to respond to the current challenges facing the profession.

A cast of leading writers and practitioners tackle the ethical questions that architects are increasingly facing in their work, from practical considerations in construction to the wider social context of buildings, their appearance, use and place in the narrative of the environment. This book gives an account of these ethical questions from the perspectives of historical architectural practice, philosophy, and business, and examines the implications of such dilemmas. Taking the current discussion of ethics in architecture on to a new stage, this volume provides an accumulation of diverse opinions, focusing on architects' actions and products that materially affect the lives of people in all urbanized societies.