Architecture and environmental design are among the last professional fields to develop a sustained and nuanced discussion concerning ethics. Hemmed in by politics and powerful clients on one side and the often unscrupulous practices of the construction industry on the other, environmental designers have been traditionally reluctant to address ethical issues head on. And yet the rapid urbanization of the world's population continues to swell into new megacities, each less healthy, welcoming, secure, or environmentally sustainable than the next. Green, carbon-reduced, and sustainable building practices are important ways architects have recently responded to the symptoms of the crisis, but are these efforts really addressing the core issues? Taking the Dine (Navajo) "Hogan Song"--a song used to protect and nourish the personhood of newly constructed dwellings--as their inspiration, the architects, philosophers, poets, and other contemporary scholars contributing to this volume demonstrate that a deeper, more radical change in our relationship to the built world needs to occur. While offering a careful critique of modernist, corporate, or techno-enthralled design practices, these essays investigate an alternative "relational ecology" whose wisdom draws from ancient and often-marginalized voices, if not the whisperings of the earth itself. Contributors include: Richard Kearney, Alberto Perez-Gomez, Juhani Pallasmaa, Karsten Harries, Edward Casey, Susan Stewart, David Abram, Stacy Alaimo, Jace and Laura Weaver, Philip Sheldrake, and Sebnem Yucel Young.

The pressing economic, environmental and social crises emanate the need for a redefinition of the dominant views, perspectives and values in the field of architecture. The intellectual production of the last two decades has witnessed an impressive number of new design techniques and conceptual displacements reflecting the dynamic and fluid relation between man and his dwelling space. However, the contemporary market forces are favouring the growth of a star-system in architectural production based on technological innovation, spectacular imagery and formal acrobatics, and are neglecting the social, environmental and moral implications of spatial design. Perhaps the time has come to think anew the possible critical intersections between space and ethos, not only as an answer to the negative consequences of Modernity, but also as a remedy to the negative aspects of globalisation. The aim of the present collective volume is to enliven the ethical dimensions and dilemmas of architecture as they are shaped within the complexity of our times on two levels: the level of critical and reflective discourse and the level of social and cultural reality occasioned by post-industrial modes of production and new technologies. Thirteen distinguished academics and researchers investigate the complex relations between architecture, space and ethics from divergent and inter-disciplinary perspectives: philosophy, sociology, the humanities, the arts, landscape design, environmental design, urban design and architectural history and theory.

Architecture has long been understood as a cultural discipline able to articulate the human condition and lift the human spirit, yet the spirituality of architecture is rarely directly addressed in academic scholarship. The seventeen chapters provide a diverse range of perspectives, grouped according to topical themes: Being in the World; Sacred, Secular, and the Contemporary Condition; Symbolic Engagements; Sacred Landscapes; and Spirituality and the Designed Environment. Even though the authors’ approach the subject from a range of disciplines and theoretical positions, all share interests in the need to rediscover, redefine, or reclaim the sacred in everyday experience, scholarly analysis, and design.

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Freedom is compelling in design; it has to be acknowledged, accepted, and comprehended in all its existential complexity to better understand and engage the intricate ethical domain of design practice. The book addresses that issue by thoroughly examining design ethics, and design in general, within an existentialist philosophical framework. Its inquiry reveals a puzzling and unsettling reality of design ethics, and hence what constitutes an ethical design practice where there is no exit for designers but complete acceptance of their freedom and responsibility. This book makes a unique, original, and invaluable contribution to the design literature and design ethics scholarship. Scholars, professors, students, and professionals in all design disciplines, as well as any person involved in arts, humanities, philosophy, social sciences, and engineering, will find philosophical insights that will challenge design thinking and inspire them to rethink design ethics as an agency of human existence making instead of code compliance. Making a case for existentialist design ethics, this book lays the ground for a radical transformation of how we conceive design, ethics in design practice, and the role of designers in the world.

In this important contribution to urban studies, Juliet Davis makes the case for a more ethical and humane approach to city development and management. With a range of illustrative case studies, the book challenges the conventional and neoliberal thinking of urban planners and academics, and explores new ways to correct problems of inequality and exclusion. It shows how a philosophy of caring can improve both city environments and communities. This is an original and powerful theory of urban care that can promote the wellbeing of our cities’ many inhabitants.

An understanding of architects’ character traits can offer important insights into how they design buildings. These traits include leadership skills necessary to coordinate a team, honest and ethical behavior, being well educated and possessing a life-long love of learning, flexibility, resourcefulness, and visionary and strategic thinking. Characteristics such as these describe a successful person. Architects also possess these traits, but they have additional skills specifically valuable for the profession. These will include the ability to question the use of digital media, new materials, processes, and methods to convey meaning in architectural form. Although not exhaustive, a discussion of such subjects as defining, imaging, persuading, and fabricating will reveal representational meaning useful for the development of an understanding of architects’ character. Through the analogies and metaphors found in Greek myth, the book describes the elusive, hard-to-define characteristics of architects to engage the dilemmas of a changing architectural landscape. Building the Architect’s Character: Explorations in Traits examines traditional and archetypal characteristics of the successful architect to ask if they remain relevant today.