Architectural Design and Ethics TOOLS FOR SURVIVAL

This book looks at some of the major ethical ideas of the past and considers what they mean in term of how architects have shaped the built environment, and how they could be interpreted in the future. It sees in ethics the source of aesthetic decisions, and in aesthetics, the reflection of our values. While laying down a theory of architecture based on ethics, the book also has practical goals, showing how architects can make better and more beautiful buildings and more responsible, sustainable development. The book will be welcomed by a wide range of professionals and students in this vitally important yet sadly under published subject area.
* Joins the dots between architectural form, ethics and professional practice
* Uses the history of ethics to present relevant lessons for today's practitioners
* A wake up call to architects, advocating a greater focus on ethics over aesthetics

Architectural Design and Ethics offers both professional architects and architecture students a theoretical base and numerous suggestions as to how we might rethink our responsibilities to the natural world and design a more sustainable future for ourselves. As we find ourselves on the steep slope of several exponential growth curves – in global population, in heat-trapping atmospheric gases, in the gap between the rich and poor, and in the demand for finite resources, Fisher lays down a theory of architecture based on ethics and explores how buildings can and do provide both social and moral dimensions. The book also has practical goals, demonstrating how architects can make better and more beautiful buildings whilst nurturing more responsible, sustainable development. Architectural Design and Ethics will prove an invaluable text not only to those in the architecture field, but to anyone simply interested in the ethical issues surrounding our built environment.

Chapter One - Our Collapsing Global Bridge; Instead of superfluous form, make everything count; Instead of the quantity of things, focus on their qualities; Chapter Two - How Nature Suffers in the Naturalistic Fallacy; Instead of throwing away, reuse or recycle; Instead of ignoring sources, source everything; Chapter Three - Why having Less is More; Instead of consuming things, treat them as sacred; Instead of wanting more, seek doing with less; Chapter Four - When Virtues are No Vice; Instead of more expensive things, make them affordable; Instead of excluding other species, provide them a home; Chapter Five - Drafting a New Social Contract; Instead of cutting us off from nature, connect us to it; Instead of reducing the diversity of a site, improve it; Chapter Six - The Needs of Duty; Instead of creating objects to possess, build community; Instead of single-use things, make them multi-functional; Chapter Seven - The Consequences of Ignoring Consequences; Instead of believing abstractions, attend to what is real; Instead of radical experiments, think in evolutionary terms

Thomas Fisher