Collectively these three references open up several lines of thought about the ethical dimensions of architecture. They are clear statements of architecture's most basic and most clearly understood purposes: that architecture is about shaping our physical habitat to suit human purposes, and in doing so also has the capacity to fulfill spiritual and emotional needs. In these quotes, there is not only a recognition that architecture embodies the values of society that gives rise to it, but there is also clearly an acknowledged duty toward the future: that aspirations can be realized through works of architecture.

Each of these lines of thought is open to articulation and critique; they demand expansion to be more fully understood. To them can be added the themes of the processes of designing and building, the activities of architecture as a discipline and a profession, and the requisite knowledge and role of the architect, each of which has ethical dimensions.

These themes of personal and professional action, of architecture as object and place, as process and practice, together with its ethical content, are central to the explorations in Ethics and the Practice of Architecture.

Contents

Preface
Introduction
PART I: AWARENESS
Introduction To Awareness
Engaging Ethics And Architecture
The Event That is Architecture
Relationships
Special Knowledge
Architectural Processes
Ethical Issues Embedded In Typical Architectural Practices
Arriving At Ethics
The Organization And Focus of Part I: Awareness
Some Basics About Ethics
Initial Comments On The Nature of Ethics
Definitions
Primary Questions
Philosophical Context
Ethical Reasoning
Texts and Discourse of Ethics
Roots Of Ethics
The Spectrum Of Ethics
Meta-ethics
Applied Ethics and Architecture
The Ethical Nature of Architecture
Architecture's Inherently Ethical Nature
Ethics And Architecture
Definitions Of Architecture
Assertions Of Architecture's Ethical Nature
An Architectural Example And Ethical Content
An Architectural Example
Ethical Content
A More In-Depth Look At Ethical Concepts
Introduction
Four Principal Ethical Theories
Action Based Upon Consequences: Teleology and Utility
Acting from Moral Rules or Principles:
Deontology
Virtue: Excellence
Contract Theory
Other Views On Ethics
Religious Morality
Relativism
Ethical Egoism
Feminist Ethics
Continental Philosophy
Businesses, Professions, And Ethical Obligations
What Is A Profession?
Duty: Service and Trust
The Profession Of Architecture
Businesses, Professions, And Ethical Obligations
Architects and Business Ethics
Architects and Professional Ethics
Ethics And Architectural Practices
The Architecture/Ethics Nexus
Five Framing Lenses
The Lens of Architecture's Purposefulness and Social Benefit
The Lens of Material Production
The Lens of Aesthetics
The Lens of Architecture's Rhetoric and
Ideologies
The Lens of Praxis
An Application Example
Ethical Reasoning
Overview And Process
A Case Example: Environmental Sustainability, Ethics, And Policies That
Guide Architecture
Definition
Assessment
Speculation and #4 Deliberation
Resolution
Reflection
PART II: UNDERSTANDING
Introduction
Learning Objectives
A Closer Look At Being An Architect
A Selected History of the Profession:

The Process (Education/Internship/Licensure)
NCARB: Ethical Standards/State Laws
AIA: Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
Alternative Roles
Professional Characteristics: Leadership
Character/Integrity/Honesty
Community Responsibilities
Professional Development
A Closer Look At Making Architecture
Overview
Design
Architecture Delivery Processes
Construction Delivery Options
Organization Issues
Management Responsibilities
Standard of Care
Risk Management
Employers/Employees
Consultants
The Changing Client
A Closer Look At Doing Architecture Ethically
Overview
Professional Roles, Activities, and Ethical
Issues
Architectural Practice Phases; Societal and
Professional Ethical Considerations
PART III: CHOICES
Introduction To Choices
Learning Objectives
Making Ethical Judgments
Process for Ethical Reasoning
Learning Settings
Learning Exercises
Case Studies
Case Studies Organization/Matrix
Personal Choices
Public Service
Cultural Diversity and the Public Architect
The Client's House
Rezoning
The Mayor and the School Board
The Neighbor's House
The Master-Plan Study
Building Codes and City Projects
The Elusive Client
Employee Rights
Two Clients/One Project
The Real-Estate-Investment Project
Adaptive Reuse/Historic Preservation
Life Safety
The Fee Proposal
The Joint Venture
The Cash-Flow Bind
The Competition
Design Integrity
The Client's Project Manager
The University Architect
Design/Build
Building-Material Choices
The Building-Code Official
The Public-Bid Opening
The Private-Bid Opening
Construction Observation
Post-Occupancy Evaluation
Right of Confidentiality and the Public
Interest
Epilogue
Appendix I: NCARB Rules of Conduct: 1998
Appendix II: AIA Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct:
Appendix III: Intern Development Program
Competencies and Ethical Considerations
Appendix IV: Architectural-Practice-Organization, Services
Delivery, and Ethical Considerations
Notes To The Text
Works Cited In The Notes
Works Recommended For Further Study
Additional Architectural References
Additional Information About The Photographs
Index

Building Ideas: An Introduction to Architectural Theory by Jonathan A. Hale (Wiley) is an essential text for students of architecture and related disciplines, satisfying the demand for an accessible introduction to the major theoretical debates in contemporary architecture. Written in a lucid and user-friendly style, the book also acts as a guide and companion volume to the many primary theoretical texts recently made available in reprinted collections. Whilst architectural monographs, collections of building precedents and polemical manifestoes are growing more and more numerous, Building Ideas is the first book to provide an introduction to such a broad range of issues in architectural theory. This text therefore serves to fill a widening gap between the everyday practice of architecture and the often-bewildering field of academic theoretical debate.

Beginning with a general introduction to the field of architectural theory, covering the interface between philosophy and technology in the production and interpretation of buildings, the book presents the major theoretical positions in contemporary architecture through a series of thematically structured chapters. Each chapter deals with a specific approach to the theory and criticism of architecture by presenting a series of related buildings as illustrations of a key theoretical position, as well as setting this position in a cultural and historical context. Under the five broad headings of 'Architecture as Engineering - The Technological Revolution', 'Architecture as Art - Aesthetics in Philosophy', 'The Return of the Body - Phenomenology in Architecture', 'Systems of Communication - Structuralism and Semiotics' and 'Politics and Architecture - The Marxist Tradition', the book presents a wide but critical survey of the central questions in the current theoretical debate. Providing the theoretical tools necessary for an understanding of the history of philosophies and technologies in architecture, this book is essential reading for undergraduate architectural theory courses as well as a first point of reference for anyone wishing to understand the complex connections between architecture and related fields of cultural enquiry.

Contents

Introduction: Theoretical Practices
Part One: The Question of Meaning in Architecture
Chapter 1: Architecture as Engineering - The Technical Revolution (Rogers's Lloyds' Building)
Chapter 2: Architecture as Art - Aesthetics in Philosophy (Zaha Hadid's Vitra Fire Station)

Part Two: Models of Interpretation
Chapter 3: The Return of the Body - Phenomenology in Architecture (Louis Kahn's Salk Institute)
Chapter 4: Systems of Communication - Structuralism and Semiotics (Hertzberger's Music Centre)
Chapter 5: Politics and Architecture - The Marxist Tradition (Ralph Erskine's Byker Wall)
Conclusion: Towards a Critical Hermeneutics (Heidigger/Gadamer/Vattimo)

Notes
Illustration Credits
Index

Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks by Kent Larson, Introduction by Vincent Scully, Afterword by William J. Mitchell

Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks will help in establishing some standard for presenting unbuilt works of architecture in the future. Larson has shows superb skill in computer rendering that reveals new vistas of Kahn's architecture. Scully’s introduction concentrate on the histrorical development of Kahn’s work While Mitchell’s provides some fine analysis of the structures and the reconstruction:

“I could have been a contender,” breathes Marlon Brando in the scene that everyone remembers from On the Waterfront. If things had gone differently at a crucial point in the past, then things would be very different now. The line evokes a poignant image of what might have been.
The beautiful computer-generated plates in this volume are more explicit. They actually show us, in photorealistic detail, what we would have had if some of the most compelling designs of Louis Kahn had been carried through to construction. They are a joy, but one tempered with regret. Kent Larson’s images reveal that these projects could have played a much more significant cultural role than they turned out to have. If they had been constructed, they could have been contenders.
It all came together. These hardware and software advances finally provided the tools that Kent Larson needed to bring his digital models miraculously to life. It took countless hours of computation, but the results are truly a revelation. On every page of this book, it is possible to see what might have been.

American architect Louis I. Kahn left behind a legacy of great buildings: the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California; the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas; and the Indian Institute for Management in Ahmedabad. Yet he also left behind an equally important legacy of designs that were never realized. This exceptional volume unites those unbuilt projects with the most advanced computer-graphics technology—the first fundamentally new tool for studying space since the development of perspective in the Renaissance—to create a beautiful and poignant vision of what might have been.

Author Kent Larson has delved deep into Kahn’s extensive archives to construct faithful computer models of a series of proposals the architect was not able to build: the U.S. Consulate in Luanda, Angola; the Meeting House of the Salk Institute in La Jolla; the Mikveh Israel Synagogue in Philadelphia; the Memorial to Six Million Jewish Martyrs in New York City; three proposals for the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem; and the Palazzo dei Congressi in Venice. The resulting computer-generated images present striking views of “real” buildings in “real” sites. Each detail is exquisitely rendered, from the interreflections of glass block to the shading of concrete to the patterns of sunlight and shadow.

Kahn’s famous statement “I thought of wrapping ruins around buildings” is borne out by the views of his unbuilt works; his rigorous exploration of tactility and sensation, light and form, is equally evident. Complementing the new computer images is extensive archival material—rough preliminary drawings, finely delineated plans, and beautiful travel sketches. Larson also presents fascinating documentation of each project, often including correspondence with the clients that shows not only the deep respect accorded the architect but the complicated circumstances that sometimes made it impossible to bring a design to fruition. Not only a historical study of Kahn’s unbuilt works, this volume is in itself an intriguing alternative history of architecture.

Contents

Foreword
Vincent Scully
Unbuilt Ruins
U.S. Consulate, Luanda
Meeting House of the Salk Institute
Mikveh Israel Synagogue
Memorial to Six Million Jewish Martyrs
Hurva Synagogue, First Proposal
Hurva Synagogue, Second Proposal
Hurva Synagogue, Third Proposal
Palazzo dei Congressi
Afterword: Contenders
William J. Mitchell
Acknowledgments
Notes
Illustration Credits

Between Silence and Light: Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn by John Lobell (Random House) Offers an introductory look at the aesthetics of Kahn and the elements of design as well as the use of space and form to create living space. As a good preamble to what architecture is about this volume is helpful.

 ARCHITECTURE OF SILENCE Cistercian Abbeys of France photographs by David Heald, introduction and historical notes by Terryl N. Kinder. (98 tritone photographs, 152 pages; Abrams)

The early Cistercian abbeys of France have long been revered for their harmoniously proportioned spaces and ethereal acoustics. Together with the great cathedrals, these remarkable medieval buildings embody the profound mastery of architecture that blossomed in 12th- and 13th-century France. Architecture of Silence is the first book in English devoted solely to these exquisite structures, which draw tens of thousands of visitors of all nationalities each year.

The power and beauty of these sacred buildings and ruins, renowned among architects and designers for their austere, almost minimal design and construction, come alive in David Heald's luminous tritone photographs. The text by Terryl N. Kinder, the world's leading scholar on the subject, offers a clear introduction to the history and architecture of the early Cistercian monks, who built the abbeys nearly 900 years ago.

 6, 000 Years of Housing written and illustrated by Norbert Schoenauer (Revised and Expanded Edition, Norton) This is an essential reference to anyone in the field of housing, beautifully illustrated in the hand of the author.

Part architecture, part history, and part anthropology, this encyclopedic book limns the rich story of housing around the world from the pre-urban dwellings of nomadic, semi-nomadic, and sedentary agricultural societies to the present. Ancient urban dwellings were inward-looking, ranged around a courtyard. Until fairly recently, these dwelling types survived in indigenous urban house forms in the Islamic world, India, China, and the Iberian peninsula and Latin America. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, however, outward-looking house forms replaced the ancient form in most of Europe and the New World.

In the MiddleAges houses served both as homes and as places of work, but gradually the domestic and business lives of the inhabitants became separate. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, profound changes in the residential development of the western world occurred: housing became segregated along socioeconomic lines and dwelling types polarized, with low-density single-family houses at one extreme, and tall, high-density multifamily tenements and apartments at the other. Side effects of America's automobile-intensive suburban dream housing include inefficient land use, pollution, and urban decay. 6, 000 Years of Housing chronicles how this came about, and suggests solutions based on a rich variety of historical precedents.

 NORBERT SCHOENAUER, an architect and town planner, is William C. Macdonald Emeritus Professor of Architecture at McGill University. Born in Romania, he was educated in Hungary and Denmark before becoming a Canadian citizen. In addition to prizes in national architectural competitions, he is the recipient of the Medaille du Merite (1995) of the Quebec Order of Architects and the 1999 Distinguished Professor Award of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. The author of numerous books and articles on housing, Professor Schoenauer lives in Montreal.

 Planning and Design Guide for Secure Adult and Juvenile Facilities edited by Leonard R. Witke, (ACA, American Correctional Association) With the explosive growth in the correctional population, the need for new facilities has grown exponentially. This book presents a variety of options and considerations regarding the design and construction of adult and juvenile correctional facilities.

The American Correctional Association (ACA) is proud to present this completely revised version of the 1983 Design Guide for Secure Adult Correctional Facilities and to include information relevant to juvenile facilities, as well. The more than fifty contributors to this volume exemplify what is special about our association. They represent a cross section of professionals -administrators, architects, engineers, builders, and programmers, who are working together to benefit the field of corrections. While there may be some philosophical differences among the contributors, these individuals came together to produce a book for ACA that is a landmark in the field.

One of the major purposes of this work is to allow all these types of individuals to talk with one another so the perspective of each can be enhanced and they can work together toward their common goal-building safe, secure, and humane correctional facilities. We hope everyone will read through the entire work, enjoying the excellent photographs and graphics, and learning more about the totality of what goes into a new facility. We urge those in adult corrections to read the sections concerning juvenile facilities because there may be ideas in these chapters that would be useful in their domains and vice versa. Similarly, the chapter discussing lessons learned from other countries provides a useful antidote to any provincialism of readers.

The ten sections of the book discuss the major aspects of planning and design considerations. The first section, "Planning, Design, Construction Process, and Issues" is the longest and sets the stage for the other sections. Section Two, "Inmate and Juvenile Housing," discusses special populations, including housing for sexual predators who have completed their original sentences. The third section, "Inmate and Juvenile Services," describes several service areas from both adult and juvenile perspectives and offers those designing facilities a background that will provide useful questions to consider in their designs. Likewise, the fourth section, "Inmate and Juvenile Programs," presents a description not only of such programs but of the spaces needed to house them.

The fifth section, "Administrative Functions," examines this area and presents a succinct chart on space needs. Section Six, "Service Facilities," discusses the underbelly of the institution whose neglect can be costly. Section Seven, "Security Features," describes the options and goals of such systems. Section Eight, "Opening a New Correctional Facility," fulfills a very important role in suggesting some procedures for preparing the facility and staff after the physical construction of the building has been completed. Section Nine looks at issues of privatization and provides some thoughtful considerations. In the conclusion, Len Witke, the book's editor, wraps up all the ideas and offers some perspective on the future.

Planning and Design Guide for Secure Adult and Juvenile Facilities was a monumental undertaking. Just as no one person has all the answers, so in collaboration with our colleagues, we gain stature and learn new approaches and methods that we may use. This is one of the goals of our association, providing individuals with an opportunity to network and learn from others, whether it is at our conferences, in our training workshops, or through our publications. We welcome the dialog and encourage our members to recruit others for membership so they, too, can grow with us.

 LE CORBUSIER’S FORMATIVE YEARS by H. Allen Brooks ($65.00, cloth, 514 pages, photos, color plates, notes, index, University of Chicago Press)

The early decades of Le Corbusier’s life and career have always remained elusive due to the absence of accurate documentation other than the architect’s own colorful and often carefully censored accounts. Only after the age of thirty-three, when Charles-Edouard Jeanneret assumed a pseudonym, did his activities become a matter of public record.

H. Allen Brooks, during twenty years of painstaking research, has unearthed an extraordinary wealth of letters, diaries, family records, school reports, and unpublished sketches and drawings that document, beginning from birth, every facet of the formative years of the twentieth-century’s most influential architect and urbanist. For the first time we learn what made Le Corbusier the person, and the designer, that he was.

LE CORBUSIER’S FORMATIVE YEARS examines, drawing on precise data, every aspect of Le Corbusier’s education from preschool through his training as a designer of ornamental watch cases and his early studies in decoration and architectural design. As a young man he traveled extensively, studying in Paris and Berlin before returning home to La Chaux-de-Fonds to teach and practice architecture, interior decoration, and furniture design. Finally, in 1917, he moved to Paris, where, after several unsuccessful years as an entrepreneur, he turned his talents to writing, painting, architecture, and urban design.

This meticulously documented and extensively illustrated biography is a pleasure to read and will long remain the definitive work in its field.

H. Allen Brooks is professor emeritus of the history of art at the University of Toronto and a past president of the Society of Architectural Historians. He is the author or editor of numerous books on Frank Lloyd Wright, the Prairie School, and Le Corbusier, including The Le Corbusier Archive, a thirty-two-volume set of the architect’s drawings.

A CRITIC WRITES: Essays by Reyner Banham edited by Mary Banham, Paul Barker, Sutherland Lyall, and Cedric Price ($39.95 cloth 351 pages, 32 b/w illustrations, notes, bibliography, index, University of California Press)

Few twentieth-century writers on architecture and design have enjoyed the renown of Reyner Banham. Born and trained in England and a U.S. resident starting in 1976, Banham wrote incisively about American and European buildings and culture. Now readers can enjoy a chronological cross-section of essays, polemics, and reviews drawn from more than three decades of Banham’s writings.

A CRITIC WRITES, which includes discussions of Italian Futurism, Adolf Loos, Paul Scneer Dart, among others also generally provides incisive accounts of the contemporary architecture by Frank Gehry, James Stirling, and Norman Foster. It conveys the full range of Banham’s belief in industrial and technological development as the motor of architectural evolution. Banham’s interests and passions ranged from architecture and the culture of pop art to urban and industrial design. In brilliant analyses of automobile styling, mobile homes, science fiction films, and the American predilection for gadgets, he anticipated many of the preoccupations of contemporary cultural studies. Los Angeles, the city that Banham commemorated in a book and a film, receives extensive attention in essays on the Santa Monica Pier, the Getty Museum, Forest Lawn cemetery, and the ubiquitous freeway system.

Readable, provocative, and entertaining, this book is certain to consolidate Banham’s reputation among architects and students of contemporary culture. For those acquainted with his writing, it offers welcome surprises as well as familiar delights. For those encountering Banham for the first time, it comprises the perfect introduction.

"Reyner Banham’s special skill was to take objects that we otherwise might take for granted and to open our eyes and minds to their visual and cultural associates. Unlike many historians he had an ‘eye’ and this came through in his writings. He was also a popularizer—ahead of his time. These perspectives are every bit as relevant now as they were in the past." —Sir Norman Foster, Foster Associates

Reyner Banham (1922-1988) was Sheldon H. Solow Professor of the History of Architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and Professor of Art History at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His many books include Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies (1973), Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1980), and A Concrete Atlantis: U.S. Industrial Building and European Modern Architecture (1986).

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