Nicholas Ray

In our era of rapid, breathless change, we need concepts of human education that promise sustainability, along with a corresponding architecture of learning. The pursuit of knowledge has always been regarded as a key to a better life – both individually and collectively – and the social value of learning is reflected most vividly in the environments where it takes place. What kind of architecture do we need for a holistic concept of education that anticipates future developments? And how can the built environment support the transformation of accumulated knowledge into lived experience and embodied wisdom? Answers to such questions have often found meaningful expression in the typology of the library – and continue to do so today. This book addresses vital questions of education, human epistemics, knowledge, and their architectural settings from diverse disciplinary perspectives.

Published in English with parallel Chinese translation. The book considers the relationship between Western philosophy and architecture. We discuss philosophy’s contribution to architecture and the way in which we can reflect philosophically about architecture, that is to say principally about individual buildings rather than cities. This double role of philosophy is unusual in what might be seen as a technical field: a philosophical investigation would more often look critically at the process of gaining new knowledge or designing and producing something, or it would try to understand or evaluate types of artefacts (for example computers). In contrast, the practice of architecture is already deeply involved in and shaped by philosophical reflection and ideas. Architecture is guided by architectural theory, an ongoing discourse that bridges between philosophy and the practical discipline. Thus when philosophy looks at architectural artefacts or production, it investigates something that is itself partly philosophical, at least in the widest sense of the word.

Proceedings form a conference held in Cambridge in 2004. Architecture intersects with ethics in numerous ways and though the book aims to examine some of them, it does not pretend to be comprehensive. Ethical dilemmas arise for all of us as individuals and in every kind of work, since we all make decisions daily which imply a scale of values as to where to place our energy or our resources. At a global scale the huge disparities in affluence between differing parts of the world, and between differing sectors of society in the so-called developed world, raise awkward issues of judgement that have led many who are trained in the design disciplines to feel that the exercise of their skills is irrelevant, at least until such disparities are substantially reduced. But the focus of this book is on the particular professional dilemmas that architects face, broadly within the context of the developed world. Within this topic there is plenty to discuss. Despite the final section of the book, which does examine some more general philosophical issues (namely the pervasive influence of the thinking of Heidegger and Kant), the kinds of dilemmas raised are not “fundamental”, and mostly revolve around “everyday” ethical issues – what is it right to do in these circumstances? It therefore aims to inform the practice of architecture, to encourage a more self-reflective professionalism, and to assist in a broader understanding of issues of practice by those who theorise.

The practice of architecture, a discipline that is inescapably contingent on the particular, but that is also required by society in some way to represent an ideal, raises a number of specific ethical issues. Following an essay by the philosopher Thomas Nagel, this paper argues that it is intrinsic to professional judgement that this involves the prioritizing of unquantifiable ‘goods’. A twentieth-century case study is examined, which exhibits the choices made by a well-known architect. The changed nature of architectural practice in the United Kingdom in the twenty-first century is then described, whereby the privilege of making such judgements has been severely limited by the substitution of managerial values for professional values. In the face of different ethical imperatives – most obviously to design responsibly within pressing ecological concerns – it is argued that the task for architects now is to re-establish a context within which sound judgements can be made, which of course implies a degree of professional trust. Their ability to balance managerial values (technical competence for example) with ethical decision-making is what may prove to be most valuable. There are implications for architectural education, which in the past has either pretended to be a science or has retreated into aesthetic speculation, providing training in the skills of persuasion rather than relationship-building. The conclusion is that ethical thinking is inescapable for the profession of architecture in the twenty-first century.