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Ethics in Architectural Practice

As with any learned or licensed profession, ethics are an essential aspect of an architectural practice. The AIA Code of Ethics, State requirements, the standard of care, health safety and welfare considerations, and other factors are all important considerations for architects in their professional conduct. By adhering to these principles, architects can build a reputation for professionalism, competence, and integrity, while designing safe, healthy, and sustainable buildings for generations to come.

The Architect’s Professional Ethics and Responsibility

Professional standard of care, state licensure, aia code of ethics, canon i: general obligations, canon ii: obligations to the public, canon iii: obligations to the client, canon iv: obligations to the profession, canon v: obligations to colleagues, canon vi: obligations to the environment, codes of ethics for other architecture organizations, the ethics of aesthetics and design, the ethics of managing an architecture firm, case studies, the frank gehry mit stata center controversy, the grenfell tower fire in london, william lemessurier and the citicorp tower, united states v. american institute of architects, conclusion – evolving ethics.

There are several ethical standards that all professionals should adhere to, regardless of their position within the firm. These criteria apply to architects and other building design professional such as engineers, interior designers, and landscape architects. For simplicity, this article will use the term architect to refer to anyone who designs buildings. 

Some important ethical standards include:

Professionalism : Architects are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner at all times. This includes communicating clearly and effectively with clients and other professionals in the industry and behaving in a respectful and courteous manner toward everyone involved in a project.

Competence : Architects are expected to have the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience to carry out their work competently. This includes staying up to date with the latest industry trends and technologies, and continuing to develop their skills through ongoing education and training.

Honesty and integrity : Architects are expected to be honest and truthful in their dealings with clients and other professionals in the industry. They should avoid misrepresenting their qualifications or experience, and they should be transparent about their fees, scope of work, and any conflicts of interest.

Respect for diversity : Architects should be respectful of cultural and ethnic diversity in their designs, and they should strive to create buildings that are inclusive and welcoming to all. They should create a firm with employees from a wide range of backgrounds so that their designs are well informed and accessible to all kinds of people.

Environmental Sustainability : Architects have a responsibility to design buildings that are environmentally sustainable. This means using materials and construction methods that minimize the impact on the planet, designing buildings that are energy-efficient, and promoting a healthy indoor environment.

As a licensed profession, architects are expected to perform their duties in accordance with accepted professional standards and practices; this is referred to as the  standard of care . The standard of care for architects varies depending on factors such as the project’s location, size, complexity, and type.

For example, an architect working on a small residential project may operate under a different standard of care than an architect working on a large commercial development. Similarly, the standard of care may vary depending on the local laws and regulations governing architectural practice in a particular jurisdiction. For example, the standard of care for seismic design in Los Angeles is different than in Cleveland.

For architects, the standard of care is an important aspect of professional practice, because it helps to ensure that they provide high-quality, ethical, and responsible services to their clients and the public. By staying informed about the latest standards and best practices, architects can help to ensure that they meet their obligations and deliver the best possible buildings for their clients.

Unfortunately, the standard of care is often cited in disputes or court cases. In these situations, the standard of care for an architect is generally determined by the prevailing professional standards and practices of the industry at the time of the project, as well as any applicable laws, regulations, and contractual obligations. To establish the standard of care, expert witnesses may be called upon to provide their opinion on whether the architect in question met the standard. Expert witnesses may include other architects, engineers, contractors, or other construction professionals who have expertise about the specific issue. The court will also consider the circumstances of the project and the actions taken by the architect.

For example, if an architect deviated from established standards and practices without a valid reason, this may be seen as a breach of the standard of care. Conversely, if an architect acted in accordance with prevailing professional standards and practices, but unforeseeable circumstances led to an unexpected outcome, this may be seen as meeting the standard of care.

In the United States, each state issues professional licenses to architects. As part of the initial licensure and subsequent renewal processes, architects make a legal representation of their credentials and agree to uphold the standards of the profession. While the specifics in each state vary, it is common for architects to confirm:

• completion of annual continuing education to stay up to date on evolving practices in the profession
• that they will protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public
• claims, court cases, or judgements against them

The  AIA Code of Ethics  provides guidelines for architects to follow in fulfilling their professional obligations. It is arranged in three tiers of statements: Canons, Ethical Standards, and Rules of Conduct. The Canons are broad principles of conduct that define the ethical responsibilities of architects to the environment, society, clients, colleagues, and the profession. The Ethical Standards are more specific goals, within each canon, that an architect should aspire to. Rules of Conduct are mandatory requirements that regulate the conduct of architects in fulfilling their professional responsibilities.

The AIA Code of Ethics has a long history, dating back to the early days of the organization in the late 19th century. The first version of the Code was adopted in 1909, and it has been revised and updated many times over the years to reflect changing ethical standards and professional practices. For instance, the AIA adopted a revised Code of Ethics in 2016 that included new provisions related to environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and global practice.

This code of ethics is worth adhering to even if you are not a member of the AIA or a licensed architect. Everyone involved in designing and constructing buildings will benefit from following the principles laid out in the code.

You can  download the 2020 version of the AIA Code of Ethics here , but here is a brief overview of each canon:

As you may suspect, the General Obligation canon covers several overall principles touching on the general aspects of the profession. Architects should strive to improve their knowledge and skills, protect human rights, and respect both cultural heritage and the history of the building professions.

Canon II requires architects to always act lawfully and to advise their clients to do the same. In addition, architects should volunteer and otherwise be involved in their community. Finally, architects should act in the public’s interest in maintaining equality regarding environmental issues.

This canon requires architects to act professionally and competently for their clients, part of which includes hiring expert consultants for areas where the architect may have limited knowledge. Architects must avoid all conflicts of interest, always remain truthful, and shall protect the confidentiality of their clients.

Canon IV requires architects to uphold the dignity and integrity of the profession. They must also make reasonable efforts to ensure that their colleagues (inside their firm and outside) do the same. This includes reporting violations to the AIA National Ethics Council.

AIA members shall respect their colleagues and acknowledge their contributions to projects. They should also contribute to, and assist in, the growth of less experienced colleagues to help the profession continue advancing. Firms shall also make help develop their employees and employees shall act professionally toward the firm.

Canon V is a recent addition to the Code of Ethics that covers an architect’s obligations to the environment. This requires AIA members to promote sustainability and responsible energy use.

Most of our readers are in the United States, but we also have readers in other countries around the world. Each of those countries has a professional organization for architects. The following links will take you to the code of ethics for these groups.

Royal Institute of British Architects:  Code of Professional Conduct

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada:  Professional Conduct and Ethics

International Union of Architects:  Recommended International Standards of Professionalism in Architectural Practice Policy on Ethics and Conduct

The bulk of architectural education focuses on design and aesthetics. No doubt, many architects have dreams of creating strikingly beautiful compositions that end up on the cover of prestigious trade publications. Howard Roark, the iconic architect in Ayn Rand’s  The Fountainhead , did not allow anything to get in the way of his vision for the perfect building. Many starchitects create designs that challenge our expectations of what a building can look like in an effort to advance the profession and, sometimes overzealously, society as a whole.

Occasionally, these grandiose efforts focused on design can lead to unhappy occupants, clients, and building officials. Leaky roofs and facades, classrooms with poor acoustics, and unexpectedly high construction costs are some common outcomes when the architect puts design form ahead of function. Architects must balance beauty with functionality, while still generating creative designs that meet the client’s desired outcome.

The past few decades have increased our focus on sustainability and resiliency in the face of a changing climate. Now, design professionals must consider the ethics surrounding form, function, finances, and the future of our planet. Our role as the lead designer is to help our clients and communities to develop projects that ethically serve all four Fs so that everyone comes out ahead. Focusing our attention on the part of the project that excites us without considering other criteria is an unethical way to practice.

While aesthetics is certainly important in architecture, they cannot take precedence over the functionality and user needs of a building. An architect's primary responsibility is to design buildings that serve the needs of their occupants and the public, while also adhering to standards of safety, sustainability, and other ethical considerations. This means that aesthetics must be considered in the context of these larger goals, rather than being the sole focus of the design process.

Working in an architecture firm is different from managing a firm, which is different than owning a firm. Sometimes, these differences put people in tough situations. Financial concerns can cloud the judgement of otherwise ethical people. Tough decisions should be evaluated through the lens of what is ethical to all parties involved, including employees, consultants, clients, the public, the environment, and the profession.

Balancing pressure from all of the different parties mentioned above is challenging. Firm management needs to provide the best work environment for their staff to spur creativity and fulfillment, while also making sure they meet the standard of care and professionalism expected by their clients and the community. All the while, they must reinvest back into the firm while earning a profit that makes their efforts worthwhile.

Firm owners and managers should confidently operate with the understanding that always doing the right thing, which is often the most challenging thing, will always pay off in the long run. It is important to keep an eye on the big picture when debating smaller decisions.

Likewise, firms should be able to rely on their staff to perform their duties professionally and ethically. Each employee has a responsibility to their firm and their colleagues. Employees should keep their firm accountable by engaging in conversations about the most ethical way to handle situations that arise during the day-to-day operations of a firm. But employees should also act ethically toward their firm.

No doubt, the discussion of how to manage a firm ethically can fill multiple books and conferences on its own. Within the short confines of this article, we can break this down into:

You know the right thing to do. Always do the right thing.

There are many well-known case studies or court cases that describe how design issues were addressed or how they could have been addressed more ethically. You can review the  AIA’s National Ethics Council Decisions  to get a sense of how things have gone wrong. 

Below are a few brief examples where architects or the AIA have been accused of breaching their ethical duties.

These cases demonstrate the importance of ethical conduct in the practice of architecture, and the potential consequences of breaching ethical duties. Architects and the AIA must uphold the highest standards of professional conduct and take their ethical responsibilities to clients and the public seriously, to maintain the trust and respect of their clients and the broader community.

Renowned architect Frank Gehry's Stata Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)  faced numerous problems after completion . The building had structural issues, leaks, and other problems with its unique design. Some critics argued that Gehry prioritized his artistic vision over practical functionality, raising questions about the ethical balance between architectural innovation and the practical needs of the building's occupants.

Although not solely an architectural issue, the  Grenfell Tower fire raised ethical concerns  about the choice of building materials, construction practices, and regulatory review. The use of flammable cladding and insulation in the renovation of the tower was seen as a breach of safety and ethical standards, ultimately leading to a devastating fire and multiple fatalities.

This  case is a striking illustration of ethics in structural engineering . LeMessurier discovered a design flaw in the Citicorp Tower that made it vulnerable to strong winds, potentially leading to a catastrophic failure. Instead of concealing the issue, LeMessurier worked tirelessly to rectify the problem, collaborating with the building's owners and city officials. He emphasized public safety over reputation and financial considerations, even at significant personal cost. This case underscores the importance of transparency, professional integrity, and the ethical duty of engineers and architects to protect human lives and well-being above all else.

The case  United States v. American Institute of Architects  (AIA) was filed in 1990 by the Department of Justice, which alleged that the AIA's ethical rules prohibiting competitive bidding violated antitrust laws. The AIA had a rule that prohibited architects from submitting competitive bids for architectural services and required them to negotiate fees with clients individually.

The Department of Justice argued that this rule restrained competition among architects and led to higher prices for architectural services. In 1993, the AIA agreed to settle the case and to amend its ethical rules to allow members to submit competitive bids for architectural services.

As a result of the settlement, the AIA revised its ethical rules to allow members to engage in competitive bidding but retained the requirement for architects to negotiate fees with clients individually. The AIA also established guidelines for competitive bidding, which require architects to provide clients with a detailed description of the scope of services to be provided, the estimated time required for completion, and the architect's proposed fee.

The settlement of this case had a significant impact on the architecture industry because it allowed architects to compete more freely on price for architectural services. It also encouraged architects to provide more detailed information to clients about their services and fees, which has improved the overall transparency and accountability of the architecture profession.

Ethical behavior, in any profession, is a constantly evolving topic. Our understanding of ethics in architecture is complex and constantly changing as new ways of practicing the profession continue to develop. It is important that we constantly evaluate our systems so that we can serve the public, our clients, and ourselves in a manner that is consistent with society overall. 

Our professional organizations, such as the AIA and RIBA, will continue to promote ethical practice, but it falls to every one of us within the profession to do our part so that architects remain well regarded among the general public.

• Michael Noll

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The AIA Code of Ethics & ethical practice

Excerpted and adapted from The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice, 15th edition

AIA members lead the way in maintaining the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and competence. The AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is both a guide and a measurement of the standards of practice.

History of the AIA Code of Ethics

Architecture as a practice is based on a moral foundation of professionalism, with responsibilities to the general public, our respective clients, the profession itself, our colleagues, and the shared environment that surrounds all of us. For members of The American Institute of Architects (AIA), the concise language of the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is both a guide and measuring stick for professional behavior.

In 1909, AIA first adopted a formal set of rules governing the conduct of architects. The rules were published as “A Circular of Advice Relative to Principles of Professional Practice and the Canons of Ethics.” According to the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), only four states (Illinois, New Jersey, California, and Colorado) had by that time adopted laws regulating the practice of architecture. As a result, AIA’s rules served to set standards for practice in much of the country. AIA periodically revised its ethical code in mostly limited ways during the ensuing 60 years.

Limitations imposed by antitrust law

State governments and their agencies enjoy various powers and privileges that do not extend to other types of organizations or to individuals. As a result, both the scope of professional rules adopted by AIA and the manner of their enforcement by AIA necessarily differ from what registration boards may do.

Antitrust law imposes significant restrictions on what conduct AIA can mandate or prohibit in a code of ethics for its members. Although antitrust law is complex, its general purpose is to foster economic competition. One way that antitrust law accomplishes this goal is to prevent competitors in a given market from acting together to unreasonably restrain competition. Because the members of AIA are competitors of each other, AIA activities cannot be carried out with the purpose or effect of reducing competition in ways that courts have found to be unreasonable, that is, without having an offsetting precompetitive effect.

Prior provisions no longer in the code

Some subjects were covered in pre-1980 versions of AIA’s code of ethics but are no longer, mostly as a result of restrictions imposed by antitrust law. Prominent in the list of such subjects is any restriction pertaining to fees or compensation for services. In a 1978 appeal by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the U.S. Supreme Court specifically held that a professional association’s ethical code may not prohibit competitive bidding—despite the argument that such a regulation would further public health, welfare, and safety.

The absence of ethical provisions regarding fees has a broader effect than just competitive bidding or minimum fee amounts, however. There is no ethical restriction on providing free services whether or not part of marketing; providing services at no charge is, of course, simply charging a fee of zero. Similarly, there are no ethical restrictions specifically pertaining to design competitions, which amount to providing services for no fee or a very small fee.

Other subjects no longer prohibited by the AIA Code of Ethics include:

• Supplanting or replacing another architect on a project. Historically, it was considered unprofessional to have any business contact with another architect’s client. The AIA Code of Ethics does not prohibit such conduct.
• Advertising. AIA’s code does not prohibit advertising of professional services. The code does contain provisions that could be violated in the context of advertising, however, such as making false statements or failing to properly credit other participants in a project.
• Contracting to do construction. The 1909 code prohibited engaging in any of the “building trades” or guaranteeing any estimate. These restrictions, which are incompatible with design-build, disappeared by the 1970s.

Structure of the code

The Code is arranged in three tiers of statements: Canons, Ethical Standards, and Rules of Conduct.

• Canons are broad principles of conduct. The code of ethics primarily addresses the responsibilities that architects and other AIA members have to others. Except for Canon I, General Obligations, the canons reflect the categories of those to whom duties are owed: the public, clients, the architectural and related professions, colleagues (as individuals), and the environment.
• Ethical Standards are more specific goals toward which members should aspire in professional performance and behavior.
• Rules of Conduct are mandatory. Violation of a Rule of Conduct is grounds for disciplinary action by AIA. Rules of Conduct, in some instances, implement more than one Canon or Ethical Standard. Commentary is provided for some of the Rules of Conduct. That commentary is meant to clarify or elaborate the intent of the rule. The commentary is not part of the code, however. Enforcement is determined by application of the Rules of Conduct alone. The commentary is intended to assist those who are seeking to conform their conduct to the code as well as those who are charged with its enforcement.

The Six Canons of the AIA Code of Ethics include:

Canon I: General Obligations

Members should maintain and advance their knowledge of the art and science of architecture, respect the body of architectural accomplishment, contribute to its growth, thoughtfully consider the social and environmental impact of their professional activities, and exercise learned and uncompromised professional judgment.

Canon II: Obligations to the Public

Members should embrace the spirit and letter of the law governing their professional affairs and should promote and serve the public interest in their personal and professional activities.

Canon III: Obligations to the Client

Members should serve their clients competently and in a professional manner and should exercise unprejudiced and unbiased judgment when performing all professional services.

Canon IV: Obligations to the Profession

Members should uphold the integrity and dignity of the profession.

Canon V: Obligations to Colleagues

Members should respect the rights and acknowledge the professional aspirations and contributions of their colleagues.

Canon VI: Obligations to the Environment

Members should promote sustainable design and development principles in their professional activities.

National Ethics Council

The bylaws of AIA establish the processes under which the ethical code is adopted, amended, and enforced. The bylaws provide for the establishment of a National Ethics Council, which has the authority to interpret the Code of Ethics. Individual members, officers, directors, employees, and officers and staff of state and local components of AIA do not have this authority.

The National Ethics Council is the body charged by the bylaws to enforce ethical matters in the practice of architecture, in accordance with current, published editions of the Code of Ethics and Rules of Procedure. It does so through the process of complaint and response, measuring ethical behavior as defined by the Code. The Council also considers proposed changes to the Code for adoption by the Board of Directors or membership of AIA and may itself propose revisions.

Composition of and Appointments to the Council

As established by AIA’s bylaws, the National Ethics Council consists of up to 12 architect members of AIA, appointed by the Board of Directors to staggered three-year terms. Typically, the Council operates with seven members, each of whom generally is reappointed to a second three-year term. Individual terms are staggered to enhance institutional memory since Council members are not permitted to serve more than two consecutive three-year terms.

Promulgation of the Code of Ethics

The National Ethics Council’s page contains the current Code of Ethics, supporting documentation, and all necessary forms. In addition to violation notices published upon the conclusion of a case, decisions of the Council are also published in redacted form, that is, with names, places, and other identifying information removed.

Changes in the code of ethics & complaint process

How the Code Itself Is Modified

AIA’s bylaws provide two means for amending the Code of Ethics. AIA’s Board of Directors is empowered to adopt amendments at any time. In addition, the members as a whole, through a vote of their delegates at an annual meeting, may adopt amendments. Typically, amendments have been made by the Board.

How the Rules of Procedure Are Modified

The National Ethics Council is given authority by AIA’s bylaws to adopt the rules under which it operates, subject to specific requirements set by the bylaws themselves. The rules under which appeals are taken are established by the bylaws and the Board of Directors.

AIA collects and disseminates Best Practices as a service to AIA members without endorsement or recommendation. Appropriate use of the information provided is the responsibility of the reader.

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ETHICS IN ARCHITECTURE

This article analyzes the results of a broad-scale process of teaching ethics in architecture to both professional and research-based master’s students at a major U.S. university. Redefining ethics as a question of both power and empowerment (or agency), classical frameworks such as Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative or Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarianism are re-cast as a framework of power discrepancies that can be addressed using negotiation strategies. Using examples taken from both professional practice and areas of current architectural research, students are asked to identify stakeholders and their values and interests, and then insert themselves into the framework as mediators in search of ethically responsive outcomes. This approach has allowed the perceived ethical neutrality of both design and research problem statements to be called into question, as students explore an enhanced role as professionals and researchers in relating problem statements to outcomes, and outcomes to broad stakeholder satisfaction.

Related Papers

The Future of Praxis: Applied Research as a Bridge Between Theory and Practice, edited by Chris Jarrett, Philip Plowright, and Hazem Rashed-Ali. Washington, D.C.: Architectural Research Centers Consortium,

Alexandra Staub

Cultural production finds constant reinforcement through the built environment, yet defining what “culture” is has become an increasingly contentious in recent years. In the United States, the rise of segregated physical spaces and the accompanying social stratification in the form of gated communities and pseudo-public spaces that attract homogenous communities has been well documented. Popularly, such segregation is linked to “living in a bubble”, in which different cultural norms within a society become isolated. Despite problems associated with such isolation, such as economic stratification and social intolerance, few architects and planners have addressed how the accompanying cultural production paradigms are related to the production of the built environment, and the architect’s role in this process. This paper uses a variation of stakeholder theory to explore the consequences of our designs. Stakeholder theory, first proposed by R. Edward Freedman in the 1980s, states that in order to succeed, companies should create value for all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, financiers, and the community – and not just shareholders. Extended to the process by which the built environment is created, this means that the effects of our building patterns and practices must be considered through the lens of all possible stakeholders in order to produce successful projects. The first step is to gain a fuller understanding of a project’s short and long-term social and cultural ramifications. Using a method adopted from principled negotiation in which stakeholders and their interests are identified in order to develop scenarios by which a majority of interests can be accommodated, this paper will analyze several recent building projects in the United States to assess their impact on cultural production.

Architecture and planning under different political systems

Peter Makachia

Architecture can assume both liberating, empowering roles as much as also serving as oppressive. This has been evident under different political systems2 in African countries and especially in their post-colonial cities. Indeed, the colonial legacy had ingrained oppressive and suppressive objectives as part of the colonial project. As political scientist Mitchell (1988) narrates, the British spatial facet, for instance, was aimed at imposing the values of the coloniser to the subjects and this was best explicit in the urban plans and other architectural forms. In Kenya, this was evident in Nairobi within the African housing strategies (Makachia, 2011), urban planning and iconic buildings (Myers, 2003; Muthuma, 2013). At this stage, some assumed a racist agenda meant to be redressed with political independence. The post-colonial agenda was meant to redress this anomaly but often failed and mostly perpetuated the same spatial strategies but now tinged in economic segregationist strategies. This thesis is most evident in the housing strategies and their outcomes in Nairobi city. The paper summarises the chronological spatial evolution of African housing in Nairobi since city’s emergence as the spatial and political nexus of the present-day Kenyan state. Through political and policy orthodoxy, housing strategies were used to realise architectural resultants that, a posteriori, can be perceived as mostly oppressive to the majority dwellers of the city. The governments of the Kenyan post-colonial state made a conscious choice to pursue policies similar to the British colonial ones in most urban planning and housing sectors but differed to the extent of giving opportunity to all races unlike the racial segregationist colonial ones. Thus, institutions like Central Housing Board3 (CHB) were emasculated with more powers and financial wherewithal, while others were created to support housing and building production, by a UN team (Abrams & Bloomberg, 1964). Indeed, in practice4, no ideological realignment has ever been adopted in Kenya since the advent of the British capitalist system at the turn of the 19th century.

Beata Sirowy, Book review: Architecture Beyond Criticism. Expert Judgment and Performance Evaluation, FORMAKADEMISK, Vol.9, Nr.2, 2016, Book review 1, 1-­9

Ashraf M. Salama

Both architectural criticism and building performance evaluation (BPE) aim to assess the quality of architectural works. Beyond this shared motivation, these domains seem to have little in common. The recent anthology Architecture Beyond Criticism. Expert judgment and performance evaluation puts this separation into question, arguing for the need to bridge the gap between architectural criticism and BPE. The major claim of this book is that these two frameworks can not only co-exist but can also, to a great advantage, supplement each other, enabling comprehensive quality assessment in architecture and, in the long term, improving the quality of our everyday environments. Download the full article to see full review.

Form Akademisk - Research Journal of Design and Design Education

Beata Sirowy

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture

Jennifer Ferng

IPTEK Journal of Proceedings Series

Jeffrey Jeffrey

Veronica Barnes , Vikki Eriksson

There is no doubt that the role of product designers has changed considerably, not least with the rise of human-centred design. While Papanek’s 1971 “Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change” seemed radical at the time, his ideas seem entirely at home in the 21st century, including his call to adopt more social responsibility in design. These views are echoed in the contemporary findings of professionals and researchers associated with ICSID, the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. The focus has shifted, from the designer as the expert to the user, or community, as the expert in their own environment; and Co-design, Participatory design, and Universal Design are but a few examples of such people-focussed design approaches. And, as design is increasingly used as a tool for social development, the exposure of designers to vulnerable individuals and communities has increased. While research fields such as the social sciences have a long history of developing a code of ethics that is explicit, younger fields such as human-centred design and design research do not. While design and design research have adopted many social sciences methodologies (such as ethnography), the issue of ethics and accountability in design remains largely undiscussed. The increasing importance of understanding the user in the design process is a key feature of human- centred design. Empathy is often described as “stepping into someone’s shoes”, however the full value of this process is described in Empathic Design. This deep understanding of the user’s circumstances is temporary, and the designer then steps back out, with an enriched understanding of the user, enabling better design solutions. However, the interactions with the user - in order to gain this deep understanding - can also raise ethical concerns at stages during the design process. The aim of this position paper is to explore the interaction moments, between designer and user, or designer and community within the design process. The Double Diamond design process will be analysed with a view to looking at characteristic tools in each stage, in order to reveal activities that require empathetic considerations. The contribution of this research will be an empathy map of the double diamond design process, with ethical implications. The significance of the analysis will be to highlight ethical concerns for individual designers, design researchers as well as those in Design Education.

Critical Environmentalism – Towards an Epistemic Framework for Architecture Upon identifying the multifaceted and disparate array of ever-changing environmental informants to architectural discourse, one is confronted with how to unite this dialogue in meaningful ways to current modes of thought and action. The question gains more significance as our knowledge of the greater environmental domain becomes more systemic and complexly heterogenic, while at the same time, approaches to the issues have proved to be progressively more reductivist, disconnected, overtly abstracted or theorized, and universally globalized in regard to multifaceted and content-rich human particularities in situ. This research focuses on the implications and applications of Critical Environmentalism (CE) to propose a corresponding epistemological framework to wide-ranging socio-environmental complexities occurring across architectural endeavors, primarily within urban and community developments as comprising the greatest number of intersections between human constructions and the greater environmental domain. CE addresses environmental issues reciprocally emerging across numerous disciplines and theoretical stances and fosters critical and systemically collective approaches to knowledge integration, amalgamating multiple stakeholder perspectives within an interconnective and operational goal of creative communal development and betterment of the human condition in relation to environmental concerns. Situating the environment (Umwelt) as an interconnecting catalyst between divergent points-of-views, CE promotes a multi-methodological, co-enabling framework intended to foster increased ethical and participatory dynamics, communal vitality, co-invested attention, and productive interchanges of knowledge that cultivate an overall quality of knowing and being within the intricacies of the greater domain. As such, it engages broader definitions for architecture within its social community, significantly embodied and epistemologically co-substantiating within a shared, environmental life-place. Fundamentally a hermeneutic standpoint, this investigation elucidates conceptual connections and mutual grounds, objectives, and modes-of-operation across knowledge domains, initiating an essential, socio-environmentally oriented framework for architectural endeavors. In this, it brings together common threads within critical social theory and environmentalist discourse to subsequently promote distinct interconnective components within a framework of socio-environmental thought for architecture. The research then provides case examples and recommendations toward stimulating progressive environmental initiatives and thus increased capacity to improve existing epistemic conditions for architecture, urban design, and community development within the broader scope of Critical Environmentalism.

Zakkiya Khan , Raymund Konigk

The systemic nature of cultural production implies that designed objects are made desirable (or acceptable) by tastemakers who endow objects with forms of social distinction. Social distinction highlights or diffuses status and reveals self-perceptions of consumers’ identities. In this way, design becomes a form of tastemaking, invested in the construction of identity and is therefore a form of cultural production rooted in consumption. The role of the designer in facilitating conspicuous consumption is therefore critical in the context of social distinction, cohesion and identity. This practice is potentially unethical when cultural production is undermined as a cyclical fashionable commodity in which conspicuous consumption is utilised to indicate who is ‘in the know’. This may lead to a wasteful practice. While conspicuous consumption may be perceived as unethical and superficial, or at least contributing to environmental and social degradation, the ethical contributions of design in this context cannot be disregarded. The aspirational nature of conspicuous consumption is evident when individuals in developing economies are pressured to indulge on aspects of consumption before their basic needs are met; the implication is that consumers in all classes and incomes have the desire to express or improve their social status (O’Cass & McEwen, 2004:29). It may be argued (following Mangold, 2014) that socially responsive design prioritises the user’s needs over the aesthetics; however the role of aesthetics in tastemaking reinforces social patterns. Tastemakers are individuals who attained enough cultural capital to empower them to determine which new novel ideas, artefacts, or creative acts are recognised as valid and made available for cultural production at large. Their decision making has the potential to influence cultural ethics on a larger scale. In this understanding, consumerism is explored as having the potential to be a meaningful and viable means of generating identity. It is here that the ethical responsibility of the tastemaker becomes relevant. The paper will, through a focus on the links between consumerism and design, attempt to disrupt the perception that conspicuous consumption is a superficial practice to indicate that consumption can be an ethical practice.

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Understanding Architecture Case Studies

• Updated: February 12, 2024

History teaches us many things, and it can carry valuable lessons on how to move forward in life. In architecture , when we are faced with a project, one of the first places we can look is the past – to see what worked, what didn’t, and what we can improve for our own projects.

This process comes in the form of architecture case studies, and every project can benefit from this research.

Here we take you through the purpose, process, and pointers for conducting effective case studies in architecture.

What is an architecture case study

A case study (also known as a precedent study ) is a means of finding relevant information about a project by examining another project with similar attributes. Case studies use real-world context to analyze, form, support, and convey different ideas and approaches in design.

Simply put, architectural case studies are when you use existing buildings as references for new ones.

Architects can conduct case studies at nearly every stage of a project, adapting and relating applicable details to refine and communicate their own projects. Students can use case studies to strengthen their research and make a more compelling case for their concepts .

Regardless of the size or scale of a project, case studies can positively impact a design in a multitude of ways.

How do you select a case study?

There are more than a hundred million buildings in the world, and your project could have similarities with thousands of other projects. On the other hand, you could also have a hard time finding buildings that match your specific project requirements.

Focusing your search parameters can help you find helpful references quickly and accurately.

The architectural program includes the spatial organization , user activity, and general functions of a building. Case studies with comparable programs can give you an idea of the spaces and circulation required for a similar project. From this, you can form a design brief catering to the unique requirements of the client or study.

Scale can be a strong common denominator among projects as it can be used to compare buildings of the same size, with a similar number of occupants or volume of visitors. Scale also ensures that the study project has an equivalent impact on the city or its surroundings.

Spaces and designs vary greatly between standalone structures and large-scale complexes, so finding case studies that emulate your project’s scale can give you more relevant and applicable information.

Project type is crucial for comparing spaces one to one. Common types include residential, commercial, office, educational, institutional, or industrial buildings. Each type can also have sub-categories such as single-family homes, mass housing, or urban condominiums.

Case studies with the same project type can help you compare occupant behavior, building management, and specific facilities that relate to your design.

Some case studies can lead you to specific architects with specialty portfolios in certain sectors such as museums, theaters, airports, or hospitals. Their expertise results in a body of work ideal for research and comparison, especially with complex public or transportation buildings.

You may also look into a specific architect if their projects embody the style and design sensibilities that you wish to explore. Many renowned architecture firms have set themselves apart with unique design philosophies and new approaches to planning.

Finding core theories to build on can help steer your project in the right direction.

Project Location

If possible, you’ll want to find case studies in the same region or setting as your project. Geographically, buildings can have significantly different approaches to planning and design based on the environment, demographic, and local culture of the area. There are also many building codes and regulations that may vary across cities and states.

Even when case studies are not from the same locality, it’s important to still have a relevant site context for your project. A tropical beach resort, for example, can take inspiration from tropical beaches across the world.

Likewise, a ski lodge project would require a look into different snowy mountains from different countries.

How are they used?

Whether it’s for academic, professional, or even personal use, case studies can offer plenty of insight for your projects and a look into different approaches and methods you may not have otherwise considered. Here are some of the most common uses for architectural case studies.

Case studies are most commonly used for research, to analyze the past, present, and future of the project typology. Through case studies you can see the evolution of a building type, the different ways problems were solved, and the considerations factored into each design.

In practice, this could be as simple as saying, “Let’s see how they did it.” It’s about learning as much as we can from completed projects and the world around us.

Inspiration

When designing from scratch, it’s common to have a few blank moments here and there. Maybe you’re struggling to develop a unified design , or are simply unsure of how to proceed with a project. Senior architects or academic instructors will often suggest seeking inspiration from existing buildings – those that we can explore and experience.

Throughout history , architecture is shown to have evolved over centuries of development, each era taking inspiration from the last while integrating forms and technologies unique to the time. Case studies are very much a part of this process, giving us a glimpse into different styles, building systems, and forms .

A study project could serve as your entire design peg, or it could add ideas far beyond the facade. The important thing about using a case study for inspiration is beginning with a basis, instead of venturing off into the great unknown. After that, it’s all up to the designers to integrate what they see fit.

As Bruce Lee once said, “absorb what is useful, discard what is not, and add what is uniquely your own.”

Design justification

Case studies help architects make well-informed decisions about planning and design, from the simplest to the most complex ideas. A single finished project is often enough to show proof of concept , and showing completed examples can go a long way in getting stakeholders on board with an idea.

When clients or jurors show skepticism or confusion about an idea, case studies can help you navigate through the hesitation to win approval for your project. Similarly, as a student, case studies can bolster your presentation to help defend your design decisions.

Communication

Unless your clients are architecture enthusiasts themselves, you’re likely going to know a lot more about buildings than them. Because of this, certain ideas aren’t going to resonate with the audience immediately, and you may need additional examples or references to make a convincing presentation.

Case studies help to make connections to existing projects. Beyond the typical sales talk and flowery words, case studies represent actual projects with quantifiable results.

With a study project, for example, you can say “this retail design strategy has been shown to increase rentable space by 15% in these two projects”, or “this facade system used in X project has reduced the need for artificial cooling by 40%, and we think it would be a great fit for what we’re trying to achieve here”.

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What to look for during your research.

Each case study should have a specific purpose for your project, be it a useful comparison or a key contribution to your ideas. Sometimes a case study could look drastically different from your project, but it can be used to communicate a wide variety of features and facets that aren’t immediately visible to the eye.

Here are a few things to look out for when doing your research.

If you’re looking to build a museum, the first kinds of buildings to look out for are other museums from around the world. A building with the same typology as yours is almost guaranteed to have similar aspects and approaches. You’ll also be able to see how the building works with its surroundings.

In the case of a museum, you’ll see if the study projects stand out monumentally, or blend in seamlessly, and from there you can decide which is more applicable for your design.

Function is another important aspect that will inform your research.

If for example, you’re comparing two museums, but one is a museum of modern art and the other is a museum of military equipment, they’re going to have vastly different spaces and functions. Similarly, schools can take inspiration from thousands of other schools, but an elementary school’s functions are going to vary greatly from a college campus.

Finding case projects that function more or less the same way as yours will give you more relevant information about the design.

There are also study projects that work well together despite having slightly different functions, such as theaters and concert halls, or bus stations and train stations. These projects, though not exactly the same, still share plenty of similarities in spatial and traffic requirements to be used as effective case studies.

If you’re exploring a certain style, you can find projects with a design close to what you’re trying to achieve.

However the forms don’t necessarily need to look the same.

For example, if you’re planning a museum with a continuous experience from one exhibit to another, you might use the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York as a case study – being one of the earliest and best examples of such style with its round, gently ramped design. But your design doesn’t need to resemble the Frank Lloyd Wright landmark.

The main purpose for finding similar styles is to see how it’s been executed with comparable planning considerations, and to see the effect the style has on a particular project type.

Whether your project is relatively small or large, it’s good to consider how projects of the same scale fare when built. Even if a building has nearly identical features and functions as your project, if it operates on a completely different scale the same principles may be far less effective on your site.

Site conditions can hugely influence the architectural design of a project, especially when working with extreme slopes or remote locations. You’ll often want to study projects that are in a similar part of the world geographically, with comparable site conditions and nearly identical settings.

Check if your site is in a rural or urban area , if it has generally flat or rolling terrain, and if the lot is a particular shape or length.

Environment

Similar to the site itself, environmental considerations will have a large impact on the way case study buildings are designed.

It’s important to know the climate, weather, and scenery of study projects to fully understand the challenges and opportunities that their designers worked with. Buildings in tropical, humid environments use very different materials and elements than those in arid or icy environments.

Circulation

Circulation is a crucial aspect of projects as it directly affects how a building is experienced.

With case studies you’ll need to look out for the flow of people, the ingress and egress areas, and how people and vehicles pass through and around the building. Circulation will determine how the design interacts with the users and the general public.

Accessibility

Though often overlooked, accessibility is becoming increasingly more important, especially for large-scale projects in dense cities. This involves how people move from the rest of the city to the site. It includes traffic management, road networks, public transportation, and universal design for the disabled.

If the target users can’t get to your building, the project can’t be used as intended. When doing case studies, it’s important to consider what measures were taken to ensure the sites were made open and accessible.

Landscape architecture encompasses far more than vegetation and trees. Each project has a unique way of approaching its landscape to address specific goals and tendencies on site.

How does the building integrate itself with the site and surroundings? How are softscapes and hardscapes introduced to create a desirable atmosphere, direct movement, facilitate activity, and promote social interaction?

Government buildings, for example, are often accompanied by wide lawns and open fields. This conveys a sense of openness, transparency, and public presence. It also frames the buildings as significant, monumental structures standing strong in an open area. These are the subtle aspects that can shape your building’s overall perception.

Construction

Construction methods and structural systems are vital for making our buildings stand safe and sound. Some systems are more applicable in tall buildings, while others are more suited for low-rise structures, but it can be interesting to see the different techniques used throughout your case studies.

You can explore systems like cantilevered beams, diagrid steel, thin shell construction, or perhaps something new entirely.

Materiality

If you’re thinking of using certain materials like stone or wood, and you’re curious to see how it was executed elsewhere, case studies can offer some great examples of materiality and the different ways a single material can be used.

The Innovation Center of UC by Alejandro Aravena is a good illustration of how a particular finish – in this case raw concrete – can be used in an unusual way to the benefit of the overall design.

Building services

Building services are one of the many aspects that make architecture a science. Understanding how a building handles things like energy, ventilation, vertical transportation, and water distribution can help you see beneath the surface to get a better idea of how the building works.

Although there are common practices, buildings can deal with services and utilities very differently. A prime example of this is the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which famously turned the building inside out to expose its services on the facade while opening up the interior space for uninterrupted volumes of light and movement.

This style became known as bowellism , and it was largely popularized by the late Richard Rogers .

Some building types are much more demanding when it comes to building services. Airports, for example, have to deal with the flow of luggage, heightened security, and all the boarding and maintenance requirements of the airplanes themselves.

The final thing to analyze while doing your case studies is the building program. This is how the composition of spaces works in relation to the building requirements. It’s helpful to see what makes the building look good, feel good, and function well.

If your study project is accompanied by a program diagram , it can be an excellent way to see how the architects were thinking.

For instance, OMA’s big and bold diagrams show how their designs are organized in a simple and logical manner. It’s become a signature and memorable part of their work, and it communicates the program in a way that everyone can understand.

A building’s arrangement of spaces can often make or break a design. It can be simple and easy to navigate, or complex and intriguing to explore. It can also be confusing or at times, troublesome to get around. Spaces can feel spacious, cozy, or cramped, and each space can evoke a different emotion whether deliberate or unintentional.

The building program is a fundamental aspect that must be considered when conducting case studies.

How do you write and present an architectural case study?

Select the most applicable projects.

There are often hundreds of potential case studies out there, and you can certainly learn from as many projects as you want, but sticking with the most relevant projects can keep your study clear and concise. Depending on the focus of your research, limit your case studies to those most suitable for communicating your ideas.

Stay on topic

It can be tempting to write entire reports about certain buildings – especially if you find them particularly interesting, but it’s important to remember you’re only mentioning these projects to help develop yours. Keep your case study on topic and in a consistent direction to keep the audience engaged.

Use graphics to illustrate key concepts throughout your projects . Even before preparing refined, colorful graphics, you can sketch visual representations as an alternative to notes for your own personal reference.

In addition to making diagrams, you can present multiple examples of similar or dissimilar concepts to compare and contrast the core ideas of different designs. Offering more than one example helps people grasp the ideas that make a building unique.

Strategic Visuals

If the visual speaks for itself, your verbal explanation will only need to describe the essence of it all. When presenting, your speaking time is valuable and it’s best to prepare your slides for maximum engagement so that you don’t lose your audience along the way.

If you carefully select and prepare your visuals, you can optimize your presentation for attention, emotion, and specific responses from the target audience.

Create a narrative

Creating a narrative is a way of tying the whole study together . By using a sequence of visuals and verbal cues, you can take the audience through a journey of the story that you’re trying to tell. Instead of showing each case study differently and independently, you can uniformly relate each project back to the common themes, or back to your project’s design.

This helps to make the relevance of each project crystal clear.

What if your project is unique?

If you’re struggling to find relevant case studies for your project, it could be a good sign that you’ve created a typology that hasn’t been done before – a first of its kind. New building types are important for shaping society and expanding the boundaries of architecture.

Innovative buildings can make people’s lives better.

As far as case studies go, you’ll likely need to gather a handful of reference projects that collectively represent the idea for your project. You can also present a progression, explaining how current and past typologies have evolved into your proposed building type. New-era architecture requires creativity, not only in the ideas but also in the research.

Case studies show us – and our clients – the many great success stories and mistakes of the past, to learn from and improve on as we move into the future. They serve an essential role in guiding our decisions as we design the buildings of tomorrow.

From school , to practice , and everything in between, case studies can be made as the foundation on which we build upon.

For a deeper dive into how case and precedent studies can build upon and influence your conceptual design approaches, we cover this and other key determining factors in our resource The Concept Kit below:

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FAQ’s about architecture case studies

Where can i find architecture case studies.

There are many resources where you can find architectural case studies. Here are some examples:

• ArchDaily : This is one of the largest online architecture publications worldwide. It provides a vast selection of architectural case studies from around the globe.
• Architectural Review : An international architecture magazine that covers case studies in detail.
• Dezeen : Another online architecture and design magazine where you can find case studies of innovative projects.
• Detail Online : This is a great resource for case studies with an emphasis on construction details.
• Divisare : It offers a comprehensive collection of buildings from across the world and often includes detailed photographs, plans, and explanatory texts.
• The Building Centre : An online platform with case studies on a variety of topics including sustainable design, technology in architecture, and more.
• Harvard Graduate School of Design : Their website provides access to various case studies, including those from students and researchers.
• El Croquis : This is a high-profile architecture and design magazine that offers in-depth case studies of significant projects.
• Casestudy.co.in : It is an Indian platform where you can find some unique case studies of architecture in India.
• Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) : They have an extensive database of case studies on tall buildings worldwide.

In addition to these, architecture books, peer-reviewed journals, and university theses are excellent sources for case studies. If you’re a student, your school library may have resources or databases you can use. Remember to make sure the sources you use are reputable and the information is accurate.

What is the difference between case study and literature study in architecture?

A case study and a literature study in architecture serve different purposes and utilize different methods of inquiry.

• Case Study : A case study in architecture is an in-depth examination of a particular project or building. The goal is to understand its context, concept, design approach, construction techniques, materials used, the functionality of spaces, environmental performance, and other relevant aspects. Architects often use case studies to learn from the successes and failures of other projects. A case study may involve site visits, interviews with the architects or users, analysis of plans and sections, and other hands-on research methods.
• Literature Study : A literature study, also known as a literature review, involves a comprehensive survey and interpretation of existing literature on a specific topic. This could include books, articles, essays , and other published works. The goal is to understand the current state of knowledge and theories about the topic, identify gaps or controversies, and situate one’s own work within the larger discourse. In architecture, a literature study might focus on a particular style, period, architect, theoretical approach, or design issue. It’s more about collating and synthesizing what has already been written or published, rather than conducting new empirical research.

In short, a case study provides an in-depth understanding of a specific instance or example, while a literature study provides a broad understanding of a specific subject as it has been discussed in various texts. Both methods are useful in their own ways, and they often complement each other in architectural research.

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Why is ethics such an important issue for architects?

26 November 2015 By Owen Hopkins Essays

The RA’s Architecture and Freedom season tackles the question of architectural ethics - but where do such debates leave us?

For any follower of architectural debate – whether in print or online – it would be hard not to be conscious of the crescendo of articles over recent months and years dealing with the question of architecture’s political and social role, and, more broadly the ‘agency’ of architects. The conventional narrative sees the architectural profession essentially under attack, constantly being eroded by the ever-increasing specialisation of roles within building design and construction. The architect is but one more small, and but no means, integral cog, in the building industry’s vast and complex development machine. Driven by the imperative to ‘de-risk’, the space for chance and the unexpected – surely fundamental to any creative process – is shrinking in favour of the tried-and-tested and commercial expediency. Architecture – and the public that many still feel it is ultimately here to serve – is being sidelined by the inherent conservatism of much of the building industry, whether large-scale city developers putting up yet another city tower block or the volume house-builders, many of whom barely involve an architect at all. Architects are useful only when their name or signature style can be used to create ‘value’. Thus while the ‘star-architect’ system is, on the one hand, a production of the architectural world and media, it is heavily bolstered – made possible even – by the needs of commerce.

The result of all this, as many have observed, is a gradual hollowing out of the architectural profession, with architects merely players in someone else’s game. Yet, despite this, it’s the architect who is still held up as culpable, sometimes wholly responsible, when something goes wrong, aesthetically, structurally, even commercially. We could certainly add morally too. When there are questions over workers’ rights, for example, it’s the architect who very often has to answer them, and, in the case of Zaha Hadid Architects’ work in Qatar, repeatedly. When another luxury residential development pops up with flats for sale at millions of pounds, it’s the architect who takes the criticism, not the building’s owner, even if the architect’s design succeeds on its own terms as an impeccable response to the brief. While the activities of developers are allowed to be led by the market (and certain regulatory parameters, of course) architects are somehow seen to be different, subject to a quite different set of standards of ‘morality’, the ‘public interest’ and of ‘ethics’. In short, architecture is seen as ‘exceptional’.

There are, of course, important historical reasons for architecture’s ‘exceptionalism’. Looking back to the late 19th century, we can see how the moralism of figures like John Ruskin and William Morris helped to pave the way for Modernism’s social agenda. While much of the 19th-century moralism arose, on one level, as a reaction to the social upheavals brought about by the Industrial Revolution, Modernism, in contrast, actively embraced the new possibilities of modernity. For many Modernists, architecture was an agent of social progress, while after the Second World War, now aligned to the ideals of the welfare state, it became an actual instrument of social emancipation. Even after Postmodernism and the triumph of neoliberal capitalism, which largely stripped architecture of moral force, the legacy remains, leaving many architects with a powerful sense that architecture has a purpose beyond a client’s brief, if not, it must be said, the opportunities to realise it.

‘Jonathan Meades kicked off proceedings by claiming that ethics and architecture should not inhabit the same sentence’

All this is why ‘ethics’ – which we might define as the application or practice of a moral position – has become such an important and recurring issue for architects. And at the ‘Architectural Ethics’ debate at the Royal Academy, part of a season on ‘Architecture and Freedom’, it was pretty clear that the architects in the audience wanted some answers.

The writer and broadcaster, Jonathan Meades, kicked off proceedings by claiming that ‘Ethics and architecture should not inhabit the same sentence’, taking aim, essentially, at the claims for architecture’s exceptionalism. Why, he asked, should architecture be different from other professions or creative pursuits that are apparently unconcerned with questions of ethics? It is a reductive argument, perhaps, but one with some validity. Having ethics implies architects have a power that extends well beyond the confines of their brief. What, Meades’ argument goes, gives architects the right to say that their concern or influence should extend beyond that which they are contracted to do? The answer is to do with architecture’s ‘public-ness’. And it was along those lines that the writer and researcher, Anna Minton, cleverly reframed the question and spoke very convincingly about how the ‘public interest’ has disappeared from the lexicon of planning and policy in favour of the broader ‘economic interest’, as if the latter is automatically coterminous with the former. Approaching a project from the question of its public interest offers, Minton argued, far greater focus and more positive results than testing it against some kind of inevitably abstract and potentially nebulous ethical code.

The agency of the architect was the subject for Francesco Sebregondi of Forensic Architecture, a group which explores the use of architectural tools and strategies to document the spatial implications of human rights abuses. As Sebregondi explained, this re-conceiving and extending of the architect’s traditional role and remit into societal, moral and legal issues was in part a response to its aforementioned curtailment. If, as a question from the floor pointed out, there is a clear distinction between architecture – the few buildings which have the involvement of architects – and the built environment – the vast majority of buildings that don’t – then one can see the model of Forensic Architecture as offering a very clear way for architects to reclaim agency over the urban condition.

‘Ethics are, after all, a relative concept – the manifestation of a moral ideal – and one person’s morality is another’s immorality’

In a way the debate didn’t really go anywhere – as has been noted already elsewhere by Rory Olcayto of the Architects’ Journal . Speaking from the floor Olcayto noted how the municipal authorities of Oslo had recently imposed an ‘ethical’ supply chain on all city-procured buildings and services. This, he argued, was a real world example of what could be achieved with political will, which architects could then take advantage of. But, just as in the more explicitly architectural aspects of the debate, one is forced to grapple with the inevitable question of what ‘ethical’ actually means in practice. Ethics are, after all, a relative concept – the manifestation of a moral ideal – and one need not have to delve too far into the annals of human history to discover that one person’s morality is another’s immorality, and vice versa.

So where does this leave us? A clue, I think, was in the contribution of Jane Hall of Assemble, the 18-person collective who have made a name for themselves for their collaborative and interdependent practice that sees them work in close dialogue with client and public in both the designing and making of their projects. In Assemble’s work, it is the ‘process’ that emerges as the architectural object, rather than the building. Similarly, what, I would argue, is important in the ethics debate is not the end product – perhaps a set of regulated ethical codes that an architect must abide by or risk being struck off the register – but the debate itself. Why, despite Meades’ protestations, are architecture and ethics discussed together? Because architects think they should be. There is no more compelling reason. The question now is how to keep the debate moving forward and ensure that architects are equipped to make ethical judgements that they feel they can defend and hold to. There is usually no right answer to an ethical dilemma, but there are certainly right ways of dealing with them.

December 2015

Since 1896, The Architectural Review has scoured the globe for architecture that challenges and inspires. Buildings old and new are chosen as prisms through which arguments and broader narratives are constructed. In their fearless storytelling, independent critical voices explore the forces that shape the homes, cities and places we inhabit.

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"See You in Court!": 9 of Architecture’s Nastiest Lawsuits

• Written by Thomas Musca
• Published on May 08, 2017

What did Pritzker Prize winner Frank Gehry get when he designed the Stata Center, an exuberantly whimsical academic complex for MIT? A very large check, plus a major lawsuit , alleging negligence and breach of contract due to rampant leaks , mold, cracks, drainage problems and sliding ice. Sometimes the most inspired designs can go awry. And when they do, some clients lawyer up. Here are 9 fascinating examples.

1. Millennium Tower, San Francisco , California

When engineers approved the Millennium Tower’s foundation, they expected the building to evenly settle a half foot (0.15 meters) over the structure’s lifespan. A mere seven years after opening, it was discovered that that 645-foot (197-meter) tall skyscraper had sunk 16 inches (0.4 meters) and was tilting 15 inches (0.38 meters) to the northwest. Unlike neighboring high-rises, the Millennium Tower’s piles never reached bedrock. The expectation was that the landfill carrying the structure’s mass would depress predictably, but it didn’t happen. This grave error has produced cracked sidewalks, deformed door frames, and a cringe-worthy 60 Minutes segment where a golf ball is shown rolling across a penthouse floor. As of 2016, the building’s tenants had filed a massive class action lawsuit in an attempt to pin the blame on the Transbay Joint Powers Authority and Millennium Partners. If you’re in the market for heavily discounted San Francisco real estate, look no further.

2. US Bank Tower’s OUE Skyslide, Los Angeles , California

During the summer of 2016, Los Angeles ’s newest attraction took Facebook newsfeeds by storm. A 45-foot (13.7-meter) long slide, cantilevering 1,000 feet (305 meters) above the ground, was tacked onto the side of the US Bank Tower, LA’s tallest skyscraper. After descending a single story onto one of the tower’s setbacks, visitors are shot out onto a mat to break their fall. A few months after opening, a woman sued the building’s operator, OUE, after ungracefully hitting the landing and breaking an ankle in the process. Although not tragic, the embarrassing incident marred the attraction with negative PR.

3. 5 Pointz Demolition, Queens, New York

The famous Queens graffiti warehouse, dubbed the “U.N. of graffiti,” was tragically whitewashed and demolished in 2014 to make room for bland, revenue-generating luxury apartment towers. Despite organized demonstrations and lawsuits in 2013 by local street artists, a judge dismissed the case and sided with the building’s owner, G&M Realty. Their work destroyed, the artists again filed suit in 2015, claiming that the whitewashing of the building violated the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA). In April 2017, the case was resurrected by a judge who ruled that the street artists’ redemptive case may proceed.

4. Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos Ciudad, Oviedo, Spain

Santiago Calatrava ’s exquisite projects are often notoriously maligned , for a variety of reasons. During construction of this extravagant shopping mall and government office block in Oviedo Spain , a portion of the structure collapsed. The incident delayed the project and led to a legal entanglement which resulted in his firm shelling out $4.3 million —a figure arrived at by subtracting the unpaid fees owed by the developer ($9.7 million) from the damages determined by the judge ($14 million).

5. Ray and Maria Stata Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Frank Gehry jokingly referred to his own ambitious foray into academic buildings as “a party of drunken robots [that] got together to celebrate.” Unfortunately, the Stata center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was less than successful. Gehry’s highly intricate forms resulted in a building that sporadically leaked, grew mold, and had plumbing issues. The aggressive freeze/thaw climate of Boston and the irregular design likely contributed to sealant failure. Gehry's firm was sued in 2007, and the case was settled in 2010 after the flawed structure was repaired.

6. Harmon Tower, Las Vegas , Nevada

Poor Norman Foster . His firm ’s first project in Las Vegas was going to be a sleek, glass-clad 49 story tower anchoring the south end of the strip. After inspectors discovered that steel rebar had been improperly installed in 15 floors, construction halted, and the building’s height was capped at 28 stories. The building was so plagued with structural issues it was only used as a giant unoccupied billboard by MGM. $400 million in suits were settled between MGM and the Perini Building Company and the stumpy remnant of Foster’s vision was demolished in 2015.

7. Johnson Museum Extension, Ithaca, New York

Cornell University slapped Pei Cobb Freed & Partners with a $1.1 million malpractice lawsuit after serious issues with humidity in the Johnson Museum’s extension, allegedly compromising the safety of the artwork held within the structure. Although the firm also designed the original brutalist wing of the building in 1972, Cornell was “deeply unsatisfied” by the museum’s addition, and thought the design to be “fundamentally flawed.”

8. Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Cosa Mesa, California

Shortly after completion, the Orange County Performing Arts Center filed suit against both Cesar Pelli and the construction firm Fluor Corp. The organization claimed that the project was $40 million over budget and that, while they were largely satisfied with the space, some of the seating was improperly designed and many of the venue’s sight lines weren’t directed toward the stage.

9. Farnsworth House , Plano, Illinois

After meeting Mies van der Rohe at a dinner party, Dr. Edith Farnsworth commissioned the famous architect to build her a summer getaway in rural Illinois . Mies’s pristine design ran over budget, triggering a series of non-payment and malpractice lawsuits from both sides. Although Mies eventually won the legal battle , the negative publicity took a toll on his sanity. The drama was so rich that Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal are starring in an upcoming major motion picture recounting the event. Mies defended his minimalist modernist masterpiece with brevity: “Less is more.” That didn’t satisfy Dr. Farnsworth, who bluntly rebutted: "We know that less is not more. It is simply less!”

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Ethics and Architecture

Perhaps before beginning to debate on what ethical conclusions an interior architect should follow, it would make sense to ask, as writer and broadcaster Jonathan Meades at the Royal Academy asked, “Why should architecture be different from other professions or creative pursuits that are unconcerned with questions of ethics?”.  

This, of course, can be extended in fair rights to the interior architect too. Meades continues by arguing that if other creative professionals are not concerned with the question of ethics, what rights do architects have for the same? 

New York Times columnist Janice Turner explicitly argues on the contrary. “Architects have a higher moral duty than other artists since they have the greatest power to shape society,” she writes. Perhaps that’s why architects are given licenses for their practice. They affect and more than often even shape the life of the people that inhabit their spaces. And so in that regard, it would make sense to then gather that architects and interior designers alike can be questioned on the subject of ethics.

The Priority Of Responsibility

The International Interior Design Association has mapped down guidelines that professionals are expected to follow when practicing. Separated by the responsibility towards different sections (like the client, the public, and so on), one could easily ask, what and where the priority of responsibility would lie. Should importance be given more to the client than to the public or should one’s devotion to the field precede overall? When influence can be wielded, does one follow the codes of conduct that empathize with the larger context and the crowd or should one turn around to face only what he/she builds?

The emergence of globalization and customization, in the post-Ford era, has made ethical economics a necessity while labor rights and humane movements have accorded a sense of equality for the worker. But does the architect, the one who conceptualizes the form and draws the lines that take shape in time, manage what is around him, or does he/she coordinate with people whom he takes under his wings. 

Is the architect a father figure, or has he/she concluded to operate on the same level as the people around him? Norman Foster, Tadao Ando, and Zaha Hadid would probably beg to differ from the latter. www.pharmalucence.com/wp-content/languages/new/zoloft.html  

Ethics and Economic Values

Globalization has made architects assign value to their name, and corporate holdings splash out to get the best ones to design for them. Moreover, the building and construction industry is much less concerned about the ills of ethical practices and does find a scapegoat in the form of an ‘architect’ and thus the ‘architect’ must come to the realization that his/her role is changing every day, and from one project to another. He/she must design, resolve, manage, coordinate and morally influence. 

The responsibility of the architect has rapidly changed over time, and so has ethical behavior. What an architect morally brings to the table is what decides whether the project in itself was ethically conceived and carried out, or not. www.pharmalucence.com/wp-content/languages/new/lipitor.html  

The Confines of Ethical Architecture

Carl Sapers (Hon. IAI) dots four tension points in an architect’s life. An architect’s monetary needs, the conflicting requirements of the client, the interest of serving the public, and the devotion to the art of architecture. These points are fairly presumed as the framework of ethical architecture and an architect must reason and practice within the confines of the framework. Yet, the framework also invites the architects to look beyond the confines and let the building speak for itself.

The tension points are very well capable of confining the art of architecture and an architect’s devotion to the field. Should a client’s requirement clash with issues of civil law or the clients themselves be the local focus in abuse of power? The architect is presented with an ethical dish wherein he must choose the least inedible serving. Should the local context be negatively tampered upon and an architect’s values towards the public can be questioned?

For an architect, in order to not dissolve the art in architecture, it would be good to look at the work of the architect and reface on whether or not these ethical tensions presented have been understood. The sphere of ethics then shifts partially from the architect and rests on the building.

Ethical Architecture and the Architect

I believe architects can and should influence the sphere in which they are assigned to work. Depending on whether one wants to manage or coordinate, the architect should devote himself to the practice of ethical architecture. Of course, these questions change from place to place and from project to project, and morality is subjective, but overall architects and interior designers wield a lot of influence in how they shape the lives of people, places, and time itself. In a matter so grave, one should not fall into characters that are driven by the engine of pure globalization, but step aside to make way for the practice of ethically driven architecture. 

Perhaps in that sense then, the ‘architect’ might need to question his/her set of deliverables and accept that his/her ideas are instruments of change.

References:

Cess (2016). Ethical Architecture. [online]. Available at: https://creativemornings.com/themes/ethics?tab=videos [Accessed 30 April 2021].

• Joseph (2016). Should an architect feel responsible for the larger context? [online]. Available at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/bombs-kill-22-army-checkpoint-syrias-homs-state-085810828.html?ref=gs {Accessed 30 April 2021].
• Denis (2018). Architects have been affected by the economic value of globalization. [online]. Available at: https://medium.com/@oswin_88137/quantifying-the-flix-buzz-c8c0519a9291 [Accessed 30 April 2021].

Unknown (2019). An architect can use the ethical framework to look beyond its confines. [online]. Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/ethical-design-and-accessibility-a287c930a8ab [Accessed 30 April 2021].

• Sofia (2021). Architects end up influencing and shaping cities and lives, in time. [online]. Available at: https://unsplash.com/photos/WZCM-ZrKcxA [Accessed 30 April 2021].

Adriel is a spatial designer who believes writing about design is just as important as the design itself. He believes that architecture and design are instruments of human expression which ought to be unfolded to enable a deeper connection with our surroundings.

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An Architect’s Ethical Dilemma

November 4th, 2020

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I was recently confronted with an ethical dilemma that I did not know how to address. Yes, it was one of those small, somewhat privileged dilemmas, but nevertheless, I would really like to hear your thoughts on this question (join the conversation on Facebook ).

Last week, a friend who is a real estate broker called me. She had a potential client who was considering buying an apartment in need of renovation. She asked if I would be willing to meet this buyer to discuss the renovation design process and costs. Coincidentally, we are doing a large renovation in this exact building. I immediately agreed to meet this client as I’m always happy to help a friend and to meet a potential future client. But a few minutes after sending this email I regretted it, feeling this was not a good idea.

My architectural firm, Studio ST Architects, has been working on a large apartment renovation in this building. We are combining three apartments into a spacious four-bedroom apartment home with a large living room, eat-in kitchen, formal dining room and a comfortable master bedroom suite. We have wonderful clients, an excellent contractor, a talented decorator, and good plans. The work had been progressing and the apartment was going to be beautiful, but things changed dramatically after the Covid-19 pandemic began.

In mid-March, residential construction in New York City was halted. But while most renovations resumed soon after the governor gave permission to do so, this co-op delayed the start for another six weeks. I was frustrated for our clients whose project was delayed, and concerned for the contractor and his team who needed the work, but I hoped that once we were back on site, work would progress quickly.

Unfortunately, things only got more difficult in the coming months. The GC is now allowed to do “noisy work” (is there any quiet work in construction?) only on Tuesdays and Thursdays and they must stop early, reducing their work day by 20%. Our contractor has been incredibly patient, trying to work within these new rules, but he is losing money and feeling frustrated.

“But what is the ethical dilemma?” you might be wondering. “This is just one more construction horror story.”

So, here is the question – if I were to meet my friend and her potential buyer, would I be obligated to disclose how hard it has been to work in this building? Should I have said that unless the pandemic restriction were lifted, any construction in this building is likely to take double the usual time and cost more? Should I have recommended that they avoid buying an apartment in this building? I realized that if I said these things I might jeopardize my friend’s deal and broker’s commission.

That afternoon, I decided to decline the opportunity to meet this potential client and to share my frustration only with my friend, the broker.

Did I do the right thing? Perhaps I did, but I think there is a larger question that architects in Manhattan face that we may have been avoiding.

In New York City, every apartment renovation must get approval from the building’s co-op or condominium board prior to filing the job with the Department of Buildings. This gives the building board and management company tremendous power over the process with little accountability and incentive to simplify the process. I have worked in buildings that approved our plans within weeks. Other buildings stretch this process over months and even years. While buyers can do their due diligence and find out about the building’s finances, planned upgrades and upcoming financial assessments, they usually know nothing about the nature of the renovation approval process even though it would have a big effect on the cost of design and the length of the construction.

And think about it – when we purchase something, for example an electric toothbrush, we can read customer reviews online and see the full specification of the product. Moreover, if we do not like the product once it arrives, we can return it, often free of charge. Is it not surprising then, that we have none of these protections when we make our biggest purchase – our home?

One could argue that during this pandemic, when most residents are working from home and children are learning on Zoom, it is understandable that the board of the building in which we are working, would try to reduce the construction noise and limit the disruption to the neighbors. Whether a building’s requirements are reasonable may be beside the point. What is missing is transparency   and accountability. People should be able to know in advance what to expect, and evaluate this information along with other aspects of the potential acquisition.

As an architect, I have information only about a small fraction of the buildings in New York City. But collectively, professionals and residents have a huge untapped body of knowledge. What would happen if real estate listing websites like StreetEasy and Zillow allowed customers to post reviews of buildings and to share their experience obtaining approvals and conducting renovation of their homes? Such a database would give buyers the information they deserve before they make a purchase, possibly influencing the value of properties. In addition, making this information public would, hopefully, give building management companies and the building’s board an incentive to improve the buyer’s experience and obtain good ratings.

I am unfortunately not qualified to build the app or platform needed to collect and share this information, but wonder if it would be helpful to have this tool to facilitate transparency and accountability, which would encourage buildings to do their best to attract good residents.

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If my firm survives, we will pay it forward.

By Esther Sperber

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Case Study: Covid-19 School Reopening – SAR Schools

August 2020

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Introduction and Acknowledgements                          Overview and Summary of Best Practices Conclusion Case Studies  

Introduction and acknowledgements.

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) initiated Four Case Studies Exemplifying Best Practices in Architectural Co-design and Building with First Nations  as a resource for designers, clients, funders, and policymakers.

As the leading voice for excellence in the built environment in Canada, the RAIC believes that architecture is a public-spirited profession with an important role in reconciliation – addressing injustices by giving agency back to Indigenous people.

The document builds on the success of the RAIC International Indigenous Architecture and Design Symposium held in on May 27, 2017. At this ground-breaking event, Indigenous speakers from Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United States presented best practices in co-design with Indigenous communities and clients. Co-design is a collaborative design process between architects and the Indigenous community as client.

The symposium was a project of the RAIC Indigenous Task Force which seeks ways to foster and promote Indigenous design in Canada.  Its members include Indigenous and non-Indigenous architects, designers, academics, intern architects and architectural students.

The four case studies presented here further explore and exemplify best practice themes, specifically in the context of three First Nations and one Inuit community in Canada. 

Ottawa consultant Louise Atkins carried out the research and writing. Special thanks are extended to the Department of Indigenous Services Canada for funding the case studies, and to the 15 individuals interviewed for the projects who generously shared their time, insights and inspiring stories.

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Overview and summary of best practices.

The four case studies set out to explore best practices in architectural co-design in the context of three First Nations and one Inuit community in Canada. One case study was selected from each of four asset classes – schools, community and cultural centres, administration and business centres, and housing. These asset types would be of special interest to First Nation, Inuit, and other Indigenous communities and to the Department of Indigenous Services Canada as they consider the architectural design, building, and funding of new community infrastructure facilities and housing. 

Best practice insights from these studies can inspire communities and help shape government funders’ policies and practices.

Summary of Best Practices

Interviews were conducted with architects and designers, Indigenous chiefs and community leaders, Indigenous government employees, contractors, and construction company officials, academics, and government funders.  Questions posed in interviews built on best practice themes from the RAIC International Indigenous Architecture and Design Symposium as well as value-added considerations such as Indigenous employment. Best practice findings are divided into four groups.

Project Initiation

The impetus for each project was different. Some were replacement assets. The Six Nations of the Grand River were replacing one-room schools dating from the early 20th-century.  When the Splatsin te Secwepemc lost their “Log Cabin” convenience and artisan craft store in a fire, they replaced it with a much larger business hub, artisan marketplace, and offices. The Squamish and Lil’Wat First Nations leveraged the opportunity of the 2010 Olympic Games to create a cultural centre as a showcase to the world in their shared traditional territory of Whistler, BC. In Nunavik, the major stakeholders came together to design, build and monitor a pilot duplex house that could be a prototype for sustainable northern housing that is culturally responsive, better adapted to climate change, and highly energy efficient.  

Co-design Process

Co-design is the collaborative design process between the architects and the Indigenous community as client. In the four case studies, best practices included architects listening carefully to understand the community’s vision, and working closely with the client throughout the design phase. The resulting building designs were anchored in Indigenous peoples’ connection with the natural world and reflected who they are as people – their traditions, culture, values and lifestyles, and their aspirations.

Co-design is not a formula. In each case study, co-design took its own distinct form. In one project, the architect worked with a large steering committee of Indigenous chiefs and stakeholder officials. Another included Elders as well. A third used a design charrette with a cross-section of Indigenous tenants and a fourth added community open houses to the process. Two of buildings were designed by Indigenous architects, and two were by architects and designers with experience working in Indigenous contexts.

For all four projects, Indigenous respondents underlined the importance of architects who listen well to the community vision and engage in ongoing dialogue. Through an iterative process, the architects brought design options and solutions until their clients were satisfied that their vision developed into a tangible design that met functional requirements and reflected their values, culture, traditions, lifestyles, and aspirations.

Designs referenced ancestral building forms and Indigenous peoples’ reverence for and relationship with the natural world. In every case example, the buildings were anchored to their natural surroundings and most integrated traditional materials, particularly wood. Each project maximized energy conservation through mechanical means, insulation, and designs that utilized natural heating, cooling, and air circulation systems.

The buildings were further enhanced through siting, orientation and natural light. In keeping with Haudenosaunee traditions, Emily C. General School is oriented to the cardinal directions, tracking the sun through the days and seasons. Following Squamish and Lil’Wat traditions, entrances to their cultural centre face east. For the Nunavik pilot duplex, reversible front entrances are an architectural innovation that allows optimal positioning of every house for solar gain and bright living spaces.

Architects and designers and their clients carefully shaped the interior spaces, commissioned artists' installations and added historical and contemporary artifacts to convey the cultures and facilitate traditional practices and teaching.

For example, visitors to the Quilakwa Centre and band members alike can sit and enjoy their Tim Hortons coffee among massive log posts and beams carved with images of bald eagles, salmon, fish, and scenes of traditional Splatsin life.

Building Process

Each community took a hands-on approach to the building process. Strong Indigenous community capacity was demonstrated in project oversight and management. Indigenous construction firms and entities employing Indigenous workers in a broad range of skilled trades built major portions of the projects. Leaders stayed involved and committed the necessary resources to ensure project completion. These best practices could be formulated into a guideline enabling First Nation funders to recognize and assess capacity and shift control of capital projects to qualified First Nations.

Steering committees continued to play an important oversight role, guiding development and consulting with architects, designers, and construction managers, right through to project completion. 

These buildings and facilities were built by Indigenous people. Project management and the majority of the construction was done by Indigenous-owned entities employing local Indigenous tradespeople, exemplifying best practices in employment, skills development, pride in the work and a sense of community ownership of the completed buildings. In every case, these buildings are highly-valued by Indigenous community residents and continue to be well-maintained.

First Nation leaders interviewed for the case studies believe that for communities with proven track records in building projects which are on-specification, on-time, and on-budget, the funding agencies should objectively assess and recognize this capacity and pass control to the First Nation for all aspects of their building projects.

Two case study projects involved First Nations who were large or sole funders of their buildings. The Quilakwa Centre was completely self-funded by the Splastsin First Nation through a combination of insurance and trust funds and loan financing. Large cultural complexes are expensive to build, and despite contributions from all levels of government and the private sector, a large funding gap remained for the Squamish Lil’wat and Squamish Cultural Centre. Both First Nations contributed their own band resources and business know-how to get the projects done.

For all four projects, Indigenous leaders were determined to complete their projects to reflect community identity and become a base for cultural reclamation and growth.

Indigenous respondents all felt that the impact of their co-designed buildings was significant, with positive, far-reaching outcomes. They appreciated the role the architectural co-design process played in creating buildings that resonate with the community and will be of lasting value.  Architectural innovations exemplified in these projects have since been applied more broadly to other building projects.

After 20 years in operation, the IL Thomas and Emily C. General Elementary Schools at Six Nations of the Grand River continue to serve as positive teaching environments and community spaces and are well-maintained. The children are aware and proud that their grandparents, aunts, and uncles built the schools, and vandalism does not occur. The co-design process with the Indigenous architect and project manager, Brian Porter, MRAIC, enabled steering committee members to develop fluency in design and construction processes – knowledge they have applied through a dozen subsequent building projects. Six Nations members continue their tradition as skilled builders and tradespeople. They are respected and employed in their home community, other First Nations and in major North American cities. Read case study

Cultural Centre

For the Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre in Whistler BC, the two First Nations sought out and hired an Indigenous architect, Alfred Waugh, MRAIC. Their goal was to give this large and complex project to an Indigenous architect to develop, innovate and become a role model for Indigenous youth. Today the Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre is a spectacular showcase for the two cultures, welcoming visitors from around the world and inspiring understanding and respect among people. It is also preserving and transmitting architecture, traditional knowledge, culture and spiritual teachings through the generations. Indigenous Youth Ambassadors employed at the centre are enjoying good careers in the tourism and hospitality industries. There are broader outcomes as well. Following construction of the cultural centre, the Squamish established a large Indigenous trades school. The cultural centre has deepened the bonds between the Squamish and Lil’Wat tribes, who are undertaking new joint projects. Architect Alfred Waugh has adapted innovations exemplified in this project to some of his subsequent major design projects. Read case study

Administrative and Business Centre

The Quilakwa Centre , located on Highway 97A in the BC interior attracts many travellers and tourists. With a Tim Hortons restaurant, convenience and craft store, and gas bar, the Splatsin Development Corporation has doubled the number of retail employees and payroll. Due to greatly increased sales of artisan crafts in the new space, traditional basket making and beading are flourishing, and new art forms are emerging. Visitors are enjoying this unique building and showcase for Splatsin culture, history, arts and business acumen. As a favourite local gathering place for people from the reserve and from nearby Enderby, it is strengthening connections between the two communities. Read case study

In Nunavik, traditional ways of life are important to identity and wellbeing. Tenants in the  Nunavik pilot duplex houses  expressed great satisfaction with their physical comfort and the capacity of their homes to support cultural practices. Owing to warm and cold porches and the large flexible kitchen and living space, a hunter and his family can store and butcher game, and hold traditional country food feasts on the floor. Another unit, occupied by a mother and her adult daughter, is an ideal environment for them to sew mitts and boots in the bright sunlight of south-facing windows, and to store sealskin pelts on their outdoor balcony. For these pilot homes, architect Alain Fournier, FIRAC, designed reverse entrances – a true innovation which allows optimal positioning of every house for solar gain. As a prototype, this pilot duplex is being monitored for physical and socio-cultural performance, a best practice that will contribute to sustainable northern housing design.  Read case study

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These four case studies illustrate that through a collaborative co-design approach, architects were successful in taking the visions, ideas, and preferences of their Indigenous clients, and turning them into designs that resonate with the community and are technically sound. These designs and building projects reflect Indigenous identity and become a base for cultural reclamation and growth.

In this way, architecture has an important role in giving agency back to Indigenous people and promoting their aspirations. 

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Case studies:.

Case Study 1: First Nation School Emily C. General Elementary School and IL Thomas Elementary School Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario Architect:  Brian Porter, MRAIC

Case Study 2: First Nation Cultural Centre Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre Squamish and Lil’Wat First Nations, British Columbia Architect:  Alfred Waugh, MRAIC

Case Study 3: First Nation Administrative and Business Centre Quilakwa Centre Splatsin te Secwepemc First Nation, British Columbia Architect:  Norman Goddard Designer:  Kevin Halchuk

Case Study 4: Inuit Housing Pilot Nunavik Duplex Quaqtaq, Nunavik, Quebec Architect:   Alain Fournier, FIRAC  

Funding for this study was provided by the Department of Indigenous Services Canada.

Information on the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Indigenous Task Force and its membership may be found  here .

A-RAK Architecture

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Architecture Case Studies Samples For Students

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Classical architecture refers to the period from the European history, covering through the rise of Greek Empire through to the foremost power cultural period until the collapse of the Roman Empire. This classical architecture is particularly referred to as Roman and Greek architecture mainly describing this ancient era of design architecture. Whereas software architecture in essence is distant from the concept of building and construction it is the process of computer systems engineering.

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IT management is an important function for any organization. The way the IT services are managed will affect the outcome of the IT strategy and the role of the strategy to the overall management of an organization. This paper will focus on the management of IT services at Alcan Company. It will assess the current and new IT services management.

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Dalton, Walton, & Carlton, Inc., a vibrant architecture firm, currently faces some challenges in terms of securing its It infrastructure and making it more effective. This paper presents the first steps in auditing the company’s virtualized environment and also its cloud computing and outsourced operations.

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Alcan is a multinational mining company that has its headquarters in Montreal, Canada. It has made numerous mergers and acquisitions through the years, which has caused the disparity in the entire company’s IT infrastructure and IT initiatives (Dube, Bernier & Roy, 2009a). With the hiring of Robert Ouellete as the Vice-President of Corporate IT and later being appointed as Alcan’s Chief Information Officer, changes are implemented in Alcan’s IT culture where a shift is made “from a culture of decentralization to a culture of distributed collaboration” (Dube, Bernier & Roy, 2009b, p. 1).

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