Introduction

The purpose of this book is to examine some of the implications of the ethical dilemmas that are special to architecture. Architecture intersects with ethics in numerous ways, and although this book aims to examine some of them, it cannot pretend to be comprehensive. Ethical dilemmas arise for all of us as individuals and in every kind of work, since we all make decisions daily which imply a scale of values as to where to place our energy or our resources. At a global scale the huge disparities in affluence between differing parts of the world, and between differing sectors of society in the so-called developed world, raise awkward issues of judgement that have led many who are trained in the design disciplines to feel that the exercise of their skills is irrelevant, at least until such disparities are substantially reduced. But the focus of this book is on the particular professional dilemmas that architects face, broadly within the context of the developed world. Within this topic there is plenty to concern us.