Ethical Imagination and Design*

Using the DTRS7 data of both architectural and engineering design meetings this chapter shows how the fields of ethics and design interrelate, especially in the area of creative imagination. The chapter first draws on Medway and Clark’s ¹ concept of ‘the virtual building’ to show how essential aspects of designerly thinking can apply to ethics. It then goes on to show how, in the process of designing, designers engage explicitly and implicitly with ethical issues. The chapter discusses four extended examples from the data – two involving the design of the crematorium and two involving the design of the digital pen – before suggesting that by addressing ethical subjects without framing them in explicitly ethical ways, the design process allows us to ‘imaginatively trace out the implications of our metaphors, prototypes and narratives’ a key element of ethical decision-making according to Johnson ² .