Today's Architecture - Essay Example

The Importance of Ethics and Social Responsibility in Architecture First of The Importance of Ethics and Social Responsibility in Architecture Introduction Architects play a monumental role in the lives of people through the structures they design and in many cases chart the way for a society or a city (Gray, March 4, 2014). Ethics and social responsibility are a requirement of many professions including architecture notably lawyers and accountants have to adhere strictly to set a code of professional conduct and ethical responsibility.

The Hippocratic Oath for doctors is well administered and followed from the start of schooling and required of doctors in all their practice. For architects, however, there are limited avenues to develop ethical and social responsibility apart from design studios, and professional practice seminars. The research aims at answering the research questions:Is ethics and social responsibility important for architects?Which strategies can be applied in learning institutions to ensure ethical and social responsibility is instilled in architects at an early age?

The working thesis for the research is that ethics and social responsibility are important for architects. The angle of the research will be finding the benefits and reasons for ethical and social responsibility for architects and the development of strategies that will be effective in meeting the ethical needs of student architects. A study of the ethical and social responsibility of architects is an important undertaking because of the influence of the design choices made by architects on communities, individuals, and the global community.

Architecture as a profession spans a lot of issues and the choices made in the course of design has direct and indirect impacts on the air quality, land use, design of public spaces, functions of the buildings, allocation of resources, security and safety of the buildings designed to the current and future generations, and aesthetic delight, among other issues. Being an architecture study, I believe I will be in a good position to capture the main issues to be dealt with in the research. The primary audience includes architects, critics of the architecture profession, and readers of architecture journals, including the Architect’s Newspaper and Architect’s Journal, aimed at dealing with responsible architecture, and the general public (Shobow, March 12, 2014).

The secondary audience includes fellow students and professor. The audience believes in the importance of having ethics and social responsibility by architects. Ethical guidelines are present for architects but not followed too much owing to the client requirements that take more precedence. From the research I have noted on the high insistence on having ethical guidelines and following them in the course of architecture to ensure the needs of the client, as well as those of the society, are represented in design (Chan, 2013).

I need to gather research relating to the benefits of ethics, the presence of ethical guidelines and its use, and the measures undertaken to instill ethical and moral responsibility to students. Other information to be gathered will include the views of professionals and critics on the existence and adherence to ethical guidelines and practices by architects. The opposing view will entail the information of views that state the limited role of ethics compared to client requirements in architecture.

Conclusion I aim at adding to the existing literature on the importance of ethics and social responsibility in architecture as well as the measures that will prove effective in instilling ethical and moral conduct in students in architecture schools. I would like approval on the collection of primary data from architects and critics on their opinion relation to the issues of ethics and social responsibility in architecture and the strategies that can be implemented in architecture schools to augment adherence to ethics and social responsibility by graduate architects.

ReferencesChan, J. K. H. (2013). Teaching ethics in architecture: contexts, issues and strategies. Journal of the NUS Teaching Academy, 3(3), 85-99. Gray, M. (March 4, 2014). The Problem With Architecture Today (and the Solution). The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monica-gray/the-problem-with-architec_b_4869707.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=inShobow, J. (March 12, 2014). Frank Gehry Is Right: 98% Of Architecture Today Has No Respect For Humanity. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/justinshubow/2014/12/03/frank-gehry-is-right-98-of-architecture-today-is-sht/