ABSTRACT
Architecture has long valued aesthetics over ethics, even though those two branches of philosophy had been inseparable until the nineteenth century, when ethics began to be viewed as an oppressive force by those engaged in various kinds of aesthetic experimentation. This matters to architecture which, more than any other art form, has to deal with both aesthetic and ethical issues, creating a good building that also does what is right for the people who use it. The challenge going forward is to rethink ethics so that is as open to experimentation as aesthetics and to reconsider the ethical obligations of aesthetic acts.
