Ethics & Sustainability

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Every day we use objects such as clothes, vehicles, mobile phones, food and many other things which have been designed for our convenience. Mankind has had a conscious desire to create tools, first to improve the chances of survival, but also to provide a convenient and comfortable life and develop a civilised society. Mankind has created lots of things which change and improve the quality of life.

 

The word ‘design’ derives from the Latin ‘designare’ which is defined as planning for action or miniature action, and there are further and diverse definitions of design. It is a language to describe colour, size, shape, function and visual reference;it is a solution to solve problems as the process of composing a desired figure toward the future. But nowadays design is a crucial expression of ideas of form, which are not just functional or visual; it involves other senses such as emotion and psychology. Design is an object which represents subconscious desire and satisfies need, and indicates a social and cultural level.In addition, design has been a tool of political coercion and symbolism. It represents an informal indicator of economic performance, cultural regeneration and social well-being. In particular, design is a political language for describing culture, society, identity and self-value. It represents behavioural patterns of society, social aspiration and the ethic of social points of view. Design gives identifiable form to the iconic beliefs, social judgement and values of culture through architecture, product design, graphic design and fashion. It means all kinds of objects are tangled up in modern politics.

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For example, there are overpasses in Long Island, New York, but many of them are extremely low. This was not a construction mistake, but deliberately designed to show a particular social point of view about the working class by Robert Mosses. The poorer and largely African American people used public transport but they were forced to get off the transport because the twelve-foot high buses couldn’t pass through the overpasses, thus deterring them from entering the city. Mosses’ construction is one example of how design reflects social values. The histories of architecture, city planning and public works contain explicit or implicit immoral purposes. Design might be exploited as a political tool to express and reflect social phenomenon and social prejudice. Should design be utilised as a method of discriminating social class and expressing prejudice? Is design fundamentally a moral?

Do designers have moral responsibility? I would like to consider the ethics of design, particularly that of architects of social housing, and especially with regard to the individual human consumer.

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In the Oxford English Dictionary, ethics are “moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.” Many professions have their own vocational ethics. The doctor’s ethic is  the Hippocratic Oath - healing patients and saving/preserving lives. The commercial company’s responsibility is to protect customer’s private information. The food retailer or restaurant provide fresh foods to customers. For the designer, there is no equivalent to the Hippocratic Oath. Design ethics are influenced by the moral character of the designer and their own notion of duty and virtue. It can be argued that design should not engage or support discrimination of race, sex, religion or disability. Design has large scale influence on how people behave and live in society because it permeates every aspect of existence, therefore consideration must be given to any innate ethical implication. Design ethics is a crucial element of making. I believe that ethics play a crucial role in design, and in particular in the publicly visible expression of architecture like social housing.

 

There are two contrasting examples of how the design ethic is important in architecture that I would like to consider.

 

First, Unite d'habitation (1947-1952), in Marseille France, designed by Le Corbusier. He was commissioned to design large scale social housing for working class people. The plans incorporated 337 apartments for roughly 1,600 residents, including private spaces as well as public facilities such as shops, sports grounds, medical places, a roof garden and a paddling pool. It was optimized for residents. In terms of technical and economical aspect, his design is effective. In order to create the right size and optimize space, he used Modular Man, a six feet tall human figure to measure the minimal space required. For the construction he used a modular unit with a concrete frame. It is strong, durable and reduced the period of construction. Inside, each flat is arranged as a two-storey duplex with a double- height. One level of each apartment covers the full 21-metre depth of the block.

In terms of social and environmental aspects his design focused improving environment through creating public areas. Unite d'habitation was built after the Second World War at a time of great social upheaval, uncertainty, discouragement and confusion. Communities were fractured. The inclusion of public and social spaces and utilities within social housing contributed greatly to the rebuilding of society.

 

Grenfell Tower, in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, was also specifically designed  as social housing. The 24-storey tower block was designed in 1967 and constructed in 1970 by Clifford Wearden and Associates and underwent major renovation between 2012 and 2016. Part of the renovation project replaced the cladding to improve the appearance of the building, and it was this cladding that contributed to the extent of the tragic fire in June 2017 that claimed the lives of 71 people. Ironically before the renovation and throughout the refurbishment, residents and their representatives wrote to the Local Authority with their concerns about the lack of fire exits, hoses, extinguishers and an effective sprinkler system, but these concerns were not acted upon.

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These two examples demonstrate the important role of ethics in architecture. The moral responsibilities of the housing architect are to provide space for a basic quality of life and protection from hazards and the inconvenience of nature. At the most basic level, a residence functions only as a shelter. With the development of society the basic function has grown aesthetically, practically, creatively, elevating the standard of living so that now human life and architecture have become inextricably linked.

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In modern architecture, architecture can be a tool to solve a social agenda and method of social reform for providing a better future to people. For modern architects, including Le Corbusier, their ethical responsibility was to improve society and people’s lives through the new way of architecture. Modern architects strive to focus on people who live in social housing, considering what they need, how they can improve their life within the emerging local and broader society, not being separated from broader society by distance, expense, materials or aesthetics. Le Corbusier created social housing based on architectural ethics. His ideas of architecture were radical and changed the concept of traditional housing design but he believed that it was a time for change and was convinced of what to do. After deciding to create a new paradigm, he was influenced by the social issues that he experienced such as rapid urbanization and industrialization that caused a variety of social problems such as unemployment and homelessness. He thought that industrial housing brought issues such as crowding, dirtiness and crime, so he wanted to create new housing designed for better living conditions and create a better society through a new residence concept. He emphasized “the machine is for living” and used modern materials and engineering techniques to improve the quality of life.

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However, Grenfell Tower was compromised by immoral design ethics arguably inspired by greed and prejudice. Grenfell Tower is located in one of the most affluent areas in England. Yet the external appearance and the lower working class demographic of the residents were perceived to be at odds with the surrounding environment. Although the renovation included improvements to the heating system,  as well as to the outside of the building, the implementation and the results of the work caused immeasurable inconvenience and eventually the loss of 71 lives. Details of the ongoing problems with the work, the behaviour and attitude of the contractors, and the lack of response of the Local Authority, are all outlined in detail in the minutes of the Grenfell Tower Emergency Meeting held on 17 March 2015. The Local Authority invested £8,700,000 for refurbishment. This included double-glazing, and an improved heating system, but arguably the main purpose was to improve the external appearance with cladding consisting of green and blue panels. This may have satisfied the demands of broader local society and the aspirations of the Conservative Local Authority, but ultimately at the expense of the lives and homes of the residents. The cladding used was cheaper and not flame-retardent. The cladding’s manufacturers clearly state that it should not be used on a building above a height of ten metres (32f) because above a certain temperature it burns as quickly as petrol.

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Unite d'habitation and Grenfell Tower highlight the importance of ethics in architecture and architect’s ethical responsibilities - where to put crucial value and what kind of result it brings to society. Ethics in architecture is what we consider and how we act for people and public. According to AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, one of the crucial obligations is upholding Human Rights.12 It is a regulation to protect the health, safety and welfare of people.

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In the UK we face an ongoing housing shortage. Since local authorities reduced building homes in large numbers, the cost of private sector housing is steadily increasing. The most serious issue is that house prices rise faster than wages, making it ever harder for people to buy property. At the same time, private rents increase every year. According to the English Housing Survey, in 2013-14 tenants paid an average of 47% of their net income in rent. Paying so much for basic living costs impacts negatively on overall quality of life. As a result of the short supply of affordable housing and the increasing rents bring a financial burden, cause of social stability, negative social impact and curtail of well-being in community.

In the case of homelessness, there are a wide range of causes, for example alcoholism, drug addition, victim of crime, bereavement, losing job, poverty, family breakdown, low income and increased demand and housing shortage. Homelessness is a critical issue that harms individuals, damages communities and destroys society. There are diverse ways to support the homeless, social housing can be the crucial solution because it addresses and involves both the homeless and society. For example, construction has begun on pre-built homes which will be used as temporary accommodation with living bed and breakfast for homeless families in Caversham, Berkshire. Reading Borough Council has invested £1.86 million to construct seven timber-clad blocks of four units, each two storeys high, providing a mix of one and two bedroom flats along with three and four bedroom houses, a total of 57 emergency homes including children’s playground, car parking and bike sheds. Even though the council has been constructing temporary housing, council and construction company consider what homeless families need in their practice. It is a mobile home park. All units are made of metal with wooden cladding, but are considered living environmental condition. Architecture is consequence of social response and integration to solve social agenda. Other local authorities such as Hackney, Croydon and Essex plan to build non-profit social housing in the next three to seven years.

Through these cases social housing is the solution of social issues, but a question is how can we  prevent a similar disaster like Grenfell Tower? How can we to improve? 

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Providing strict regulation and planning by local committees can be good but the most important thing is architect has clear ethical responsibilities for social housing. Architect has Ideally architecture is an expression of radical ideas and approaches, reflecting their philosophies and creativity through design while improving quality of life. Nowadays architects have less subjectivity in aim and freedom of design. They face the ongoing challenge of balancing the considerations of personal value judgements, social judgements according to moral obligation, client’s interests, architect’s economic profit, the consumer and the environment. Architects must engage with the competing priorities of ethical, political and economic considerations. The Grenfell Tower case reveals the tragic consequences of ill-applied priorities and the extent of the architect’s responsibility. Social housing is for disadvantaged group who are not eligible to work such as unemployed, mental or physical health issue, victim of crime, bereavement, losing job, poverty, family breakdown and low income. We live in market economy period. It maximizes efficiency through competition, but fails to protect the less privileged because they disrupt the growth of economy. Even though they hinder national development, government and society have to care for them and try to improve their living condition because in terms of social aspect, they are part of society. For this reason, social housing is based on social responsibility and ethics.

Architecture involves everything such as environment issue, private interest, public interest, money and public impact. Whatever the purpose, the most important thing in architecture is considering safety, health and environment, how architecture improves people’s life and how affect relationship between environment and people because architect and architecture have social responsibilities beyond our practice. Architects consider all options such as material, emission, energy consumption, health & safety issue of building, building function and community. Architecture has massive impact to change society and community so that having ethical responsibilities are very important for architects. Architect has to stand on ethical standard rather than avoiding moral responsibilities or compromising themselves by any other reasons. Architects can take roles to intervene critical, social and environment issues as individual or groups. It doesn’t matter whether architects involve with profit organization or

non-profit organization if architects have fundamental ethic based on social value. Architecture has power to change society and behave of people in good way. The social responsibility of architecture is to create better places, intervening critical social issue, solving the problems and improving environment for better world.

In conclusion, social housing is not just about the building. It is the outcome of social integration between people to people and between people and environment. Full consideration needs to be given to all stakeholder needs, in the long-term, to ensure the best, most economical, sustainable and most importantly, safe environment is constructed. Applying Service Design principles to building design and construction would be useful. According to Mat Hunter, Chief Design Officer at the Design Council, “Service design is therefore the shaping of service experiences so that they really work for people. Removing the lumps and bumps that make them frustrating, and then adding some magic to make them compelling. It is based on creating value for customers and

it is designed with input from the user of the service.

 

The ‘Make it work’ project is good example. This project led by Live|Work. Sunderland had faced long-term unemployment and low participation rate in employment programmes because 26% of Sunderland’s working-age population was economically inactive, with high rates of long-term unemployment and low participation rate in employment programmes in 2008. The design team worked with the twelve long-term unemployed, organized the requirements and worked with service staff to identify the confusing content of the current unemployment support project. They found that a more well-coordinated approach is needed to help them. The design team developed new visualizations, especially showing how subjects were associated with different services in the process of finding jobs, played a crucial role in identifying the problem. The design team also visualized a variety of ideas ranging from education to how to build a network of diverse community organizations involved in finding jobs for the unemployed and they proposed service prototypes for ideas with community organizations associated with customer groups and encouraged them to voluntarily participate in service completion. As a result, a series of services with a total of more than 280 service providers has been created. The UK government has typically spent £62,000 per person (about $ 110 million) to provide jobs to long-term unemployed people, but the service design method reduced it to £5,000. In addition, 275 of the more than 1,000 applicants have been offered new jobs.

Although this example is from a different context, it demonstrates how an inclusive, 360 degree service design approach that includes all stakeholders can reveal all their requirements, focus on exactly what needs to be done to achieve them and do so economically in the short and long term. By consulting and including the input from either potential or current social housing customers/residents, the process may also contribute towards improving trust and therefore relationships between citizens and government, making for a healthier society.