Dominika
Bednarz
Ethics & Architecture
- Dilemmas of Professional Practice
The course essay was carried out on the second semester of master studies during foreign exchange as part of the ERASMUS + program, at University of Stavanger, Norway.
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The project is carried out as individual work on New Technologies and Ideas for Sustainable City Development course. Disrupting new ideas often precedes disruptive new-engineered technologies or the two interact. The course aims at discussing such technologies and ideas and the many relationships between them, assuming that they will have a great impact on cities in the near and more distant future.
If applied properly they could ensure a more sustainable development of cities. The course aims at studying some selected such technologies and ideas and to train our ability to detect them in advance and to apply them.
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Workshop 1 FORECASTING
Long term planning requires a deep understanding of how cities develop. Everything we do involves forecasting. Is it possible to forecast more precisely the changes ahead? If so, is forecasting the only tool available or can backcasting (setting out ambitious goals and then carry them through) also work?
Workshop 2 ETHICS
In order to develop truly sustainable cities we need to look at more than just technological improvements and greenery. How people meet in cities, how safe a city is also defines the quality of living. So does the level of corruption and other ethical challenges. A philosophical approach to the issue can help us clarify our thoughts.
Workshop 3 CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS RISKS
The world is - in spite of many doomsday forecasts - a better place for the majority of people than 100 years ago. But what are the consequences of climate change? Are we acting too late and forced to focus on mitigation and adaptation, or can we still avoid dramatic climate change? Mid-term review and discussion of the on-going student work.
Workshop 4 THE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND BATTERY REVOLUTIONS
We study the latest projects of energy autonomous, zero carbon communities; both planned and built ones and their dependence on renewable energy. The immense possibilities offered by the price fall and technology improvements of renewable energy in combination with the battery revolution has led to a range of projects worth looking at; solar villages, solar planes, boats and buildings combining solar with other renewable technologies like wind power and heat pumps. But we also look at poor examples.
Workshop 5 NOTOPIA
The world has over time been blessed or cursed with visionary ideas normally referred to as Utopias. They offer hope and engagement that make us stretch our ability to see new possibilities. But sometimes they end up as extreme cases of centralised dictatorial straight jackets that rather than ending up as well working solutions, signals failure. We look at examples of both and focus on one particularly huge global challenge, like housing the poor and others with financial restraints to adhere to.
PROFESSOR
UNIVERSITY
Abstract
Architecture is the timeless art of organizing space, based on technology, mathematics and engineering. It is the one among the fine arts which is shaping space in the real forms to satisfy material and spiritual human needs. Architecture has a huge impact on aesthetics, the appearance of cities and buildings. Its task is clear space shaping and the intellectual solving of many problems. Architects, through their projects, have a huge impact on the perception of architecture and shape the living conditions of people around the world. However, architects often become servants of the monetary elite. Using examples, I would like to discuss this dilemma and realize that the work of an architect is really difficult and requires understanding. By dividing into a category: Cultural differences, human rights & responsibility for the employees, Environmental issues, Contextual conflict, Selfishness (both the architect and the client) and Hypocrisy, I want to show how broad a concept is the ethics of the profession of architect. I want to prove that the architect is usually only a player in the game of developers and investors, and yet he is still found guilty, sometimes completely responsible when something goes wrong. Very often it is said that the architect will design everything for money. This is completely true - this is what his work is all about - provides the service, like many other people. Why, then, is he assessed differently and much more is required from him than it is from others? Why is the architect supposed to have impeccable morality and risk a loss of remuneration just because someone thinks that his project is "unethical"? And how and when to know that it is "ethical"?
Keywords:
ethics, architecture, architect, cultural differences, human rights, responsibility, environment, selfishness, hypocrisy.