TY - JOUR

T1 - Making morality

T2 - sustainable architecture and the pragmatic imagination

AU - Farmer, Graham

AU - Guy, Simon

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - Environmental ethics as a discipline has directed little attention towards the built environment and even less to the process of building design. Conversely, within the professional context of architectural practice, questions of ethics and morality have hardly figured within a rapidly developing discourse of sustainability in which environmental values have tended to be downplayed in the pursuit of quantitative models of environmental innovation. The philosophy of pragmatism potentially provides a useful analytical and moral framework that links the environmental ethics of sustainability to the design, construction, and use of buildings. Pragmatism's embrace of contextual pluralism, its emphasis on experience and practice, and its high regard for the political worth of the community move the discussion away from a narrow focus on predefined and universal codes, whether ethical or technical. Sustainable design should be understood as a 'co-evolutionary' ethical practice, a socio-technical process that engages a wide range of human (and non-human) actors in the production and use of complex architectural artefacts. The aim is to encourage a deeper engagement with sustainable architectural practice, to embrace broader sociological or philosophical questions (beyond narrow 'how to' debates). By exploring sustainable architectures in the plural, new questions can be posed and fresh thinking introduced about sustainable design.

AB - Environmental ethics as a discipline has directed little attention towards the built environment and even less to the process of building design. Conversely, within the professional context of architectural practice, questions of ethics and morality have hardly figured within a rapidly developing discourse of sustainability in which environmental values have tended to be downplayed in the pursuit of quantitative models of environmental innovation. The philosophy of pragmatism potentially provides a useful analytical and moral framework that links the environmental ethics of sustainability to the design, construction, and use of buildings. Pragmatism's embrace of contextual pluralism, its emphasis on experience and practice, and its high regard for the political worth of the community move the discussion away from a narrow focus on predefined and universal codes, whether ethical or technical. Sustainable design should be understood as a 'co-evolutionary' ethical practice, a socio-technical process that engages a wide range of human (and non-human) actors in the production and use of complex architectural artefacts. The aim is to encourage a deeper engagement with sustainable architectural practice, to embrace broader sociological or philosophical questions (beyond narrow 'how to' debates). By exploring sustainable architectures in the plural, new questions can be posed and fresh thinking introduced about sustainable design.

KW - built environment

KW - design practice

KW - ethics

KW - intelligent practice

KW - pragmatism

KW - sustainable building

KW - urban design

U2 - 10.1080/09613218.2010.482236

DO - 10.1080/09613218.2010.482236

M3 - Journal article

VL - 38

SP - 368

EP - 378

JO - Building Research and Information

JF - Building Research and Information

SN - 0961-3218

IS - 4

M1 - 923038952

ER -