Ethics of Architecture or Ethical Architecture?

Introduction

Throughout the writings about the essence of architecture and the nature of ethics in architecture (Abel, 1982; Abusaada, 2017; Schwarzer & Schmarsow, 1991; Sweeting, 2016), this research is about Architecture—Ethics. It revolves around the following question: is the ethical dimension linked with providing ethical professional practice or is it an addition to design building standards?

Consequently, the next discussion traces this relationship based on two issues. The first is a theoretical review, which tends to pursue the ethical issue through discussions of the principles laid down by the most critical thinkers (Arab and Western). The second moves through an analytical reading for three intellectual architectural movements: modernism, postmodernism, and new brutalism. A series of questions arise:

• 1.

  How can one recognise that any of these principles are moral and any of them is immoral?

• 2.

  Was a specific principle overriding other principles? In addition, who can decide that any building is ethical or unethical?

Some principles can be drawn from human values to be just a guide for making a superior design but not for making a stately design (Debbarma, 2014; Rokeach, 1969; Williams, 1979). This work concludes that there is no so-called ethical or moral architecture, but those ethics correlated with professional practice (Fox W., 2000; Naagarazan, 2006; Parnell, 2011; Spector, 2001). This matter means that the construction of a building is governed by ideas, visions, and design criteria, while the ethical principles guide professional practice.

The characteristics of ethics are relative and vary (Westermarck, 1932), wherein cultures differ widely in their ethical practices. In addition, as appeared in the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy ‘moral relativism’ is the view that moral judgements are true or false only relative to some particular standpoint (for instance, that of a culture or a historical period) and that no standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others (Westacott, 2017). However, despite those differences, ethics has nothing to do with a community, culture, or religion without others and you will find it in all customs from the beginning of the history of mankind until our time. This chapter includes the definition and essence of ethics and values, and the architecture movements to explores the nature of ethics in architecture.

Ethics

Ethics in the English language is derived from the spirit of the Greek word ēthikós (i.e. ethos), which means character (Liddell & Scott, 1889). It is a system of moral principles that govern human actions whether it is good or bad, right, or wrong; the Concise Oxford Dictionary refers to ethics as codes of conduct for a specific humanitarian category. Ethics means the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group, distinguishing between ethics and morality, which he stated ‘are the standards that an individual or group has about what is right and wrong, or good and evil’ (Velasquez, 2006, p. 8). Three types of ethics are virtue ethics, deontological ethics, and consequentialist ethics, or just consequentialism (Fox W., 2000, p. 389). These are related to three things: the transmission of qualities in the personality; identifying those principles that we are obliged to respect in our conduct (independently of concerns about consequences); and ‘identifying the kinds of outcomes that we should strive to maximise (the best-known form of consequentialism is utilitarianism, which enjoins us to maximise the general happiness)’.