Design Ethics in Practice

A Procedural Method for Architects and Built Environment Professionals
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-33602-0
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 194 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm

Design today speaks fluently of care—empathy, inclusion, community—but rarely of justification. Design Ethics addresses this gap by offering a reproducible, institution-ready method of ethical reasoning that can be taught, audited, and applied across professional design practice.

Drawing on the procedural transformation of biomedical ethics following the Belmont Report, Jeffrey W. Bulger develops a parallel framework for architecture, planning, and the built environment. Where professional codes—UIA, NCARB, AIA, ARB, RIBA, RAIC, and NSCA—define obligations but avoid adjudicating ethical trade-offs, Design Ethics supplies the missing structure for deliberation and justification. Bulger translates Principlism’s triad—Respect for Persons, Beneficence, and Justice—into design’s operative grammar: Duty, Consequence, and Fairness. These principles are operationalized through practical instruments—the Duty Statement, Consequences Ledger, Fairness Report, and Design Ethics Board—that convert moral intention into publicly defensible decision-making.

Aligning ethics with the logic of the scientific method—hypothesis, evidence, review—Design Ethics reframes ethics as professional infrastructure, accountable to institutions and affected communities. Integrated appendices extend the method into procedures, governance, and pedagogy, ensuring ethical reasoning remains durable beyond individual judgment. Ethics becomes method.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional Practice & Development, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bulger, Jeffrey

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Innenarchitektur, Architekturdesign
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Architektur: Berufspraxis
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Angewandte Ethik & Soziale Verantwortung Umweltethik, Umweltphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Gestaltung, Darstellung, Bautechnik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prologue: Why Design Needs Ethics. 1. The Architecture of Ethics: From Aristotle to the Belmont Report. 2. Respect for Persons: Duty, Autonomy, and Truth in Design. 3. Beneficence and Nonmaleficence: Consequence and the Ethics of Impact. 4. Justice as Fairness: The Distribution of Benefits and Burdens. 5. Institutionalization: The Design Ethics Board (DEB). 6. Pedagogy, Reproduction ands Ethical Method. 7. The Moral Life of Materials. Epilogue: The Courage to Decide. Appendices: Core Products (Templates), Governance Documents for the Design Ethics Board (DEB), Pedagogy Tools.

Über Autor(innen)

Jeffrey W. Bulger is an emeritus professor of bioethics and humanities and a certified healthcare ethics consultant whose work examines how moral principles become operational procedures in complex institutions. Trained in philosophy, religious studies, and engineering, he works with ethical frameworks—Kantian autonomy, Millian proportionality, and Rawlsian justice—across governance, pedagogy, and professional practice.