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.
Introduction Part 1: Historical Perspective 1. Practical Wisdom for Architects: or the Uses of Ethics Andrew Saint 2. The Cambridge History Faculty Building: A Case Study in Ethical Dilemmas in the 20th Century Nicholas Ray Part 2: The Professional Context in the Twenty-First Century 3. Architecture and its Ethical Dilemmas Michael Latham 4. Architecture: Art and Accountability Richard MacCormac 5. Responsive Practice Giles Oliver 6. On Being a Humble Architect Sjoerd Soeters Part 3: Accountability and the Architectural Imagination 7. Accountability, Trust and Professional Practice Onora O’Neill 8. Moral Imagination and the Practice of Architecture Jane Collier 9. Codes of Ethics and Coercion Tom Spector Part 4: Personal and Public Ethos 10. Hearth and Horizon Andrew Ballantyne 11. Architecture Luxury and Ethics Richard Hill Part 5: Ethics and Aesthetics 12. Less Aesthetics More Ethics Neil Leach 13. Architecture Morality and Taste Julian Roberts 14. Afterword
Biography
Nicholas Ray is Reader Emeritus at the University of Cambridge Department of Architecture. He is Fellow and Director of Studies in Architecture for Jesus College, Cambridge, and Director of Nicholas Ray Associates, architects, a practice mostly engaged in buildings for tertiary education. He is the author of Cambridge Architecture - a Concise Guide, numerous articles in professional journals and a forthcoming study of Alvar Aalto.
'All the individual contributions ... are consistently well written and thought provoking ... at a time when architects are being arrested in Japan for knowingly putting the public at risk for personal gain, this is an extremely timely publication which I would highly recommend.' - Kevin Nute, The Architectural Review
'A timely contribution to the advancement of the understanding of the complex range of ethical issues faced by the profession.' - Building Research & Information