ABSTRACT
Social contract ethics asks us to think about what constitutes a good society, something that architects also reflect, consciously or not, in every building they design. Such ethics arose, in part, to help us sort through the conflicts that arise over property, which is also something that involves architects whose work helps resolve property conflicts through design. That is especially true when one building negatively affects the use or value of another. Zoning tries to prevent such impacts, but ethics can also guide us in terms of what the social contract demands of us and of others.
