Graduate School of Design
"As an architect attempting to be an ethicist for a year, I was simultaneously outpaced and inspired by my accomplished colleagues. Our weekly discussions managed to be both broad and profound and I felt truly indulged, enjoying a regular diet of scintillating interactions. The skilled direction of Dennis Thompson, along with the skilled counter-direction of Arthur Applbaum, certainly provides one of the most genuine intellectual forums I have had the privilege to experience."
Victoria E. Beach, from Report on the Ethics Fellowship Year 1999-2000
At Harvard's Graduate School of Design, ethical issues have been studied primarily in the course "Issues in the Practice of Architecture." Developed and taught for the first time in the mid-1990s, the offering introduces basic elements of practice while challenging students to consider professional, political, commercial, and other problems with ethical components. Carl Sapers, Adjunct Professor of Studies in Professional Practice in Architecture, and former instructor and Ethics Center Faculty Fellow Victoria Beach were instrumental in creating the course, which addresses a long list of topics at the intersection of architecture and ethics, including: ethical limits on soliciting work; responsibilities to clients and colleagues; design quality in circumstances of diminished project control; the effects of professional specialization on fiduciary responsibilities; the cross-cultural dimensions of international work; and conflicts in meeting responsibilities to clients, professional standards, and the community.
Ethics-related material in the course includes several exercises that encourage students to consider fundamental principles that challenge conventional assumptions in the profession. At the beginning of each exercise, students receive partial information about a problem to initiate a discussion. This may subsequently change course as the session progresses and more details about the conflict are provided. Among the questions raised by the exercises are: conflicts between an architect's professional integrity and the desires of the client; the obligation of senior architects to acknowledge the contributions of junior colleagues; and the propriety of using donations to obtain commissions. In general, the exercises enable students to prepare for the challenges they may encounter early in their careers.
The School's involvement in ethics is influencing those in the design community outside Harvard. In 2007, for the first time in the history of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the yearly inaugural board meeting, which establishes priorities for the organization's incoming president, was launched with a presentation on ethics delivered by Beach. She discussed the defining ethical tenets of professionalism and their relevance to contemporary architectural practice. It is notable, as well, that one of the featured lectures at the AIA's 2007 Convention was "The Role of Ethics in Sustaining the Profession."
The School has been exploring a new initiative to enhance ethics education in the curriculum. Jerold Kayden, Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design, led a task force that produced a plan for additional courses in ethics, as well as proposals for introducing ethical issues in other courses in the School. This is a hopeful sign that the Design School will continue to expand its ethics-related offerings in the coming years.