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Scripture & Practice - Paper 6 RELATING
CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT ETHICS Ethics is a major theme common to both the Built Environment and Christian Theology fields. In both cases there are rich literatures and varieties of texts shedding light on the depths and nuances of the subject. This paper seeks to discover resonance between the two textual streams. THE TEXTS - BUILT ENVIRONMENT ETHICS Both
Christian Ethics and Built Environment ethics (including architectural
ethics, planning ethics and others) are the subject of rich literatures
and varieties of texts. The
problem is that the Christian and Built Environment ethics texts appear
not to talk substantively to, or about, each other, leaving readers and
practitioners to make connections as best they can. However,
if one listens and reads carefully, there is significant, if sometimes
incidental, resonance between the two streams. A
selection of ten texts has been made from each stream. I have chosen
them because over the years they have helped me to develop my own
understandings. In some cases there may be later or better texts but I
cannot say that they are 'mine'. I have
found that my selected texts from both fields make a pattern, and that
the two patterns can be related to each other. As
indicated in the first chart below, Christian Ethics texts can be shown
to move progressively from 'Faith and Becoming' at one end of a
spectrum to 'Practice and Doing' at the other. Having faith that
certain things are true and important, and being part of a faith
community, supports commitment to certain values and kinds of action The second chart indicates how a similar selection of Built Environment
Ethics texts can be shown to move in the opposite direction, that is
from 'Practice and Doing' at one end of the spectrum to 'Being and
Meaning' at the other. In this sequence, involvement in practical
situations leads to questions and reflection about what ones values are
and what is the meaning of what one is doing. It
could be said that Chart 1 shows a journey from the spiritual to the
practical, while Chart 2 shows a journey from the practical to the
spiritual
Chart 1- Christian Ethics texts from
FAITH and BECOMING..... ....to PRACTICE and DOING
from PRACTICE
AND DOING....... The
comments below will show a path from the core concepts of the Christian
faith, through the life of the formative Christian community to
practical living and professional work in a built environment context. HA
Williams - Resurrection and ethical possibility In True Resurrection (1972)
Williams' standpoint is the resurrection of Christ,
together with new ways of creative, ethical and good living which flow
from it. Some specific points are these:
Here and
now we are able to live the new possibilities of resurrection life.
Specifically:
Architecture
is not far from art, and building technology not far from science.
Resurrection can come in the built environment context. But often 'we
do not recognise resurrection when it comes to us. The presence of the
Eternal Word is unnoticed'. Hans-Ruedi
Weber - Christ working on us In Living
in the Image of Christ (1986), Weber relates our new ethical
creativeness to the nature of Christ. We are called into Christ to be
embodied into his wisdom, his crucifixion and his eternal creativity,
not primarily as homer faber,
to do something, but as imago dei,
to be something.
In these
insights, Weber himself shows the relevance of his Christian Ethics to
built environment.
Stanley
Hauerwas
- ethics in the Christian community In The
Peacable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (1983) Hauerwas sets the consideration of ethics at the heart of the
Christian community, the company of those who are empowered by the
resurrection (Williams) and are conformed to Christ (Weber). Some
particular points are:
The point
on trust is absolutely relevant. Christians are in the community centred
around Jesus, where permanent convictions are nurtured. That gives the
freedom to trust and be trusted and is what we given to take from the
church community to the built environment world. Frank
Wright - discovering goodness In Exploration
into Goodness (1988), Wright is concerned with the formation of
individual good character
Early one Sunday morning Donald
Nicholl was out running not far from
Wright
says these things in the light of his wide experience in adult Christian
formation. The church and similar faith communities are where we mentor
one another in goodness, whether we are quarry workers or managing
directors of international companies. Mary
E Mills - Biblical narrative ethics In Biblical
Morality: Moral perspectives in Old Testament narratives (2001),
Mills develops her study of Old Testament ethics through the examination
of selected characters, plots and time-place situations. This is pretty
much what happens in building. Characters with varying moral qualities
become involved in projects, some of which can be very tangled, and all
of which are subject to the circumstances of when and where they take
place. Mills
reflects at length on the complex stories of Abraham and David.
I will
mention here just one example of 'plot':
How relevant this is to building and built environment. It is an ethical
judgement on what time scale we choose to work on, both in terms of
human relationships and relationships with resources and environments. Also
relevant to built environment is the story of Job:
It seems to me that an essential moral question for town planners and
others is 'Where is the dung heap, who is sitting on it, what are they
thinking and where are they going?' We become
people of Scripture, of the Word, when we relate it to our own
situations. Timothy
Sedgwick - Sacramental ethics In Sacramental
Ethics (1987) Sedgwick complements Mills' perspective on the Word
so that together, in Word and Sacrament, they become our bridge to the
practical world of building
From a
sacramental perspective, it seems to me, we build ourselves into God and
God into our work of road-making, temple-building and every other aspect
of Built Environment. Helen
Oppenheimer - good building work Following
on from the sacramental perspective, Oppenheimer in Making
Good (2001) brings us to a consideration of what good building work
is, aesthetically and morally:
Beyond aesthetic there is beautiful Beyond duty there is goodwill Beyond fairness there is magnanimity Beyond acceptability there is excellence
Oppenheimer's
analogies make the relevance of her points to building obvious. GF
Woods - Ethics and technical standards In A
Defence of Theological Ethics (!966), Woods usefully refers directly
to physical and professional standards, a hardening up of
Oppenheimer's goodness. On
physical standards he says:
Woods
comments extensively on professional standards:
His
comments on theological facets include:
It is
immensely encouraging to find that a theological ethicist has reached
this depth of practical detail. Philip
Wogaman - Ethics and economics In Economics
and Ethics: A Christian Enquiry (1986) Wogaman comments on the
vocation of the economist, not a built environment profession
specifically but one that powerfully determines and interprets built
environment scenarios.
He sets
out a series of priorities to govern economic thought and activity.
Although there are no direct references to it, built environment is part
of the overall scenario into which they fit.
Ian
Barbour - Ethics and the environment In Ethics
in an Age of Technology (Volume 2) (1992), Barbour brings us to
environmental values as a part of an integrated system of nine value
components: Individual
values
Social values
Environmental values Food and
health
Social justice
Resource sustainability Meaningful
work
Participatory freedom
Environmental protection Personal
fulfilment
Economic development
Respect for all forms of life On each of
these, Barbour goes into immense detail, scientific, philosophical and
multi-religious. Particularly with environmental values much has
happened in the twenty years since Barbour delivered the Gifford
Lectures of which this book is the record. Rather than get involved with
the vastness of detail, I want to pause on his final credo.
THE
TEXTS - BUILT ENVIRONMENT ETHICS The
comments below will show a path from the concrete realities of the
building project, through the varied locations and situations which
affect ethics, to more fundamental matters of personal conduct and the
meaning of built environment itself. Peter Fewings - the whole
construction project Fewings
leads a post-graduate programme in Construction Project Management. His
book Ethics for the Built
Environment (2009) traverses in a very comprehensive way the whole
process of construction projects from design and planning to practical
site management. He asks of every part of the process what the ethical
considerations are. His topics include:
These
chapters together with an equally comprehensive set of case studies
provide an ethical toolkit for every Construction Project Manager,
working in the The
importance of Fewings' contribution, in addition to its primary role
as a text book, lies in the ethical significance of every major
consideration and every small step in the construction project process.
No one can say 'I have no ethical responsibility'. Francis
Ventre - standards and legislation Every
building project involves the upholding of standards, some of which are
embodied in legally binding regulations. Both the formulation and
implementation of legislation is, at least in part, an ethical matter. In his
paper Regulation: a realisation of
social ethics Francis Ventre, (1990)
in Ethics and Architecture (ed
Capelli et al) maintains that there is a strong argument for moving
ethical discussion toward the institutions within which all
professionals - both the morally aware and the ethically obtuse '
must operate, that is towards standards, regulations and legislation. Regulations,
broadly considered, are the means by which societies, using the coercive
powers of government, mediate the private actions of individuals...
Design and construction are, in short, regulated industries and building
regulations reflect, however imperfectly, a society-wide understanding
of what that society expects of its buildings and their environs. The range
of legislation is illustrated in the following list from the Date
Objective
Initiators 1880
Curtail typhoid and noisome nuisance
Sanitary engineers, public health physicians It is
these non-designers who have established and now maintain the rule
structures and modes of discourse within which design is done. Ventre
looks for a 'meta-narrative' within which the entire society acts as
a collective client. The rules
for tomorrow's design and construction are yet to be written. But
these rules most certainly will be written, whether by enlightened and
sensitive designers intent on the creation of environments that enhance
human potential for knowing a good life or by others who do not share
that aspiration. Tom
Spector - project milieu In The
Ethical Architect (2001) Tom Spector talks in terms of the
multi-facetted milieu of a building design or project First he
gives strong endorsement to the Vitruvian concepts of firmitas, utilitas, venustas, durability, convenience and beauty
and their descendents as enunciated by Henry Wotton 'Well building
hath three conditions Commoditie, Firmenes, Delight - While
the Vitruvian/Wottonian definition of architectural values leaves the
door wide open for conflict, yet, in Spector's view, it remains the
most durable guide to practical design ethics. The good is found through
wrestling with the dilemmas and conflicts. Spector
goes on to consider the ethical importance of a building's context. As
architecture is the most context-sensitive of the arts he finds it
perplexing that modern buildings so often make poor neighbours. Because
context is not concerned with what goes on inside a building, he does
not consider it has the same importance as the three Vitruvian/Wottonian
values. A further
ethical consideration is the matter of styles, of which there are many.
Here, in Spector's view, the task of morality becomes not so much to
construct a universal tent covering everyone as to convince others to
come in under the tent they find most hospitable. This, he believes, is
exactly how a style operates. Drawing
his threads together, Spector argues that by considering the
architect's ethical milieu as one in which the desires to be both a
conscientious professional and a good designer are inextricably
conjoined, the full bite of the ethical problem emerges. Realistically,
architects can expect to experience certain unease about their
decisions, but this unease is not necessarily a bad thing. The moral
complexity implied in a plurality of values is one of the things that
makes design a source of fascination and allows it to be such a
marvellously supple contributor to contemporary life. By personally
facing the dilemmas and distancing themselves from ethical models of
impersonal rationality, architects' ability to design becomes more
closely aligned with personal development than with mechanical skill. The
concept of the ethical proposed here is not that of the censor but of a
creative force directing the agencies at work to their proper end, and
drawing upon whatever is their intrinsic good to make possible a form of
life that is wanted. This follows Wittgenstein for whom ethics was
'the enquiry into what is valuable or into what is really
important.... into the meaning of life, into what makes life worth
living, the right way of living'. It is the role of the ethical to
pursue that which is most fruitful in the weaving together of
innumerable patterns of operation in daily life. Architecture
is incontestably one of the practical arts, whose obligation is to serve
ends other than itself. Every need for a building carries its own
ontological code within it, and it is the task of architecture to draw
out the intrinsic qualities and virtues of that appetite and by so doing
give form to a form-of-life, 'a local habitation and a name'. Ethic,
Golany says, is the norms and standards constituted by a society to
retain order and healthy management in its social and environmental
setting, the discipline by which we measure what is good and bad, right
and wrong, and define moral obligations. It is a group of moral
principles or a set of values that is essential for human physical and
mental survival. As such, ethic applies to community and individual
behaviour as related to the code of urban setting, to the norms by which
we create human-made environment, and to the way we treat the natural
environment. Golany
enables us to perceive the healthy order of which he speaks in the
context of early times: '
The creation of the village was a result of humankind's
growing maturity. Sociologically, people needed social progress and
security. The village also provided a place for worship and in some
cases an altar was built first and later the village grew up around it.
Here, too, the village provided a place for assembly, ceremonial
gatherings, and celebrations. Economically, the village strengthened a
sense of mutual responsibility, a spirit of cooperation, and an
appreciation of common interests. Politically, tribal leadership was
strengthened through the village's new collective labour experience...
'
On a larger scale, urban environmental ethics is the product of
two generations of factors that may or may not be fused with each other
through urban development. The first is the culture of urban residents
by which they conduct their behaviour according to the norms and
standards throughout their urban life, and which give ethics their
urbanity. The second is the urban designers' input when they designed
the neighbourhood and the city. This input was dictated by their
professional norms, standards and values, based on their professional
beliefs, which determine their ethics. Urban environmental ethics is the
product of these two ethics. Indigenous urban design evolved as a system
of 'urban design without the designer', and was in many cases
successful in establishing urban harmony. '
In order to secure the continuity of the [ Nicholas
Ray - attitudes and virtues Nicolas
Ray's text Architecture and its
ethical dilemmas (2005) is a collection of conference papers. I have
chosen four of them for comment here, all relating to attitudes and
virtues.. In his
paper Practical wisdom for
architects: the use of ethics Andrew Saint is concerned with
character. Quoting the now legendary Arthur J Willis, he points out that
in traditional contracts, although the architect is appointed by the
client, he has a very real responsibility towards the building
contractor, and must act quite impartially between the building owner
and the contractor... To maintain this impartiality will require tact
and strength of character and will provide the greatest test of the
architect's integrity But, Saint
continues, for students and lovers of architecture, and among a fair
proportion of architects in practice, a separate undertow of issues
affects their thoughts and actions. What is architecture for? What am I
doing? Why am I doing it? (Almost certainly not to make money.) Why is
it important? What should it be like and look like? These are the big
questions the responses to which are in some ways affected by
character.. In his
paper Responsive practice Giles
Oliver comments on the two lenses through which public sector
architecture is to be seen and on the personal qualities, particularly
that of listening, which are therefore needed. In relation to a National
Health Service scenario there are two distinct lenses. The first is the
managerial lens, which seeks economies in cost, such as lease plus
agreements, lower heating bills, fewer ambulance transfers, efficiencies
in administrative staff numbers. The second is the lens of health care,
which seeks a holistic response to the citizen's health care needs,
both preventative and allopathic [curing disease], and meeting these on
demand, equitably. Such incommensurable values twine together into the
fabric of 'public sector values'. As architects ... we are
immediately faced with ethical tensions and conflicts. In life,
there is considerable satisfaction in bringing a personally developed
skill into play with others, in dialogue and through enquiry which
involves close listening. Rather than welcoming the way the 'other'
affects and changes our choices and actions, the 'other' becomes a
threat. Architects are trained in the skills of persuasion rather than
relationship building ... In his
paper On being a humble architect
Sjoerd Soeters comments on the need for respect and agreement on
basic values. He says, we should not work for people we do not respect:
if you cannot identify with the aims of your client you should not
accept the commission. My office turns down jobs where we find it will
be impossible to relate new buildings to open spaces satisfactorily,
where we cannot make a decent urban pattern or relationship of buildings
to landscape. We are not content to design individual buildings that
stand beside the highway calling attention to themselves... In her
paper Moral imagination and the
practice of architecture Jane Collier is concerned with
responsibility. Responsibility is always
both individual and collective. In the case of architecture it is
individual, for instance, when it relates to the aesthetic quality of
the architect's work, but collective when it involves the joint action
of designers, planners, builders and project managers in the inception
and completion of a major project. Responsibility is thus implicated in
the excellence of architectural practice, not simply in the narrow sense
of competence and fulfilment of duties to uphold the interests of
clients, but also in the wider sense of responsibility for the
'footprint' created by the shaping of the built environment now and
its implications for the future.... Responsibility for the future is the
crystallised essence of all responsibility. John
Short - as if people matter A
fundamental human question is, 'What is a good city?' John Short's
answer is in the title he gives to his book The
We have,
he says, tried to run cities as if:
Put
positively, Short's message is that 'the humane city is the built
form of the caring society'. That comes about through, in part: David
Watkin - what architecture truly is In Morality
and Architecture Revisited (2001) David Watkin asks where true
architectural morality is. He answers that it is in individuals and
freedom, and in the mysterious origins and the importance of
'style'. Morality
is not in being a mirror for other things. It cannot be explained away
as a consequence or manifestation of something else, whatever happens to
interest the particular critic most: whether religion, politics,
sociology, philosophy, rationalism, technology, German theories of
space, or of the spirit of the age. Three of
the most persistent explanations of architecture - in terms of (1)
religion, sociology or politics; (2) the spirit of the age; and (3) a
rational or technological justification - can be seen as respectively
English, German and French. Cowling argued that the liberalism on which
the modern world prided itself was in fact a rigid, moralizing
orthodoxy, frequently narrower in its prescriptions than the religious
certainties which it had replaced. Lutyens
was one of the two or three most brilliant and successful architects Styles,
however, are no lie if looked at fairly as the recorded and often
ill-recorded experience of men's endeavours. Among the most beautiful
inhabitants of the world in which we live, you might place trees, and
among trees the beech. How comes the beech to be? Created out of itself
by the blind energy of its sap - no two trees are alike - yet all
are akin and true to style. One may not appreciate style, but the
experience of 3000 years of man's work - creative work cannot be
disregarded unless we are prepared for disaster. Karsten
Harries - the ethical function of architecture In The
Ethical Function of Architecture (1997) Karsten Harries develops his
belief that architecture has a specifically ethical function in that it
calls us out of the everyday, recalls us to the values presiding over
our lives as members of a society; it beckons us toward a better life, a
bit closer to the ideal. One task of architecture is at least to
preserve a piece of utopia, and inevitably such a piece leaves and
should leave a sting, awaken utopian longings, fill us with dreams of
another and better world. ... we
have learned to be suspicious of all architecture that confidently
embraces architecture's traditional ethical function. Any architect
who today wants to address that function must be aware that he does so
without authority, that he is a bit like the fool who says what he
thinks needs to be said but can only hope that others will listen. The
ethical function includes the recognition of spirituality. Harries
quotes Hans Hollein: Architecture is a spiritual order realised through building. Architecture - an idea built into an infinite space, manifesting
man's spiritual energy and power, the material form and expression of
his destiny, of his life. From its origins until today the essence and meaning of architecture have
not changed. To build is a basic human need. It is first manifested not
in the setting up of protective roofs, but in the creation of sacred
structures, in the indication of focal points of human activity - the
beginning of the city. All building is religious. Although
much of the world's building and architectural effort is concerned
with homes and housing, nevertheless there is an essential homelessness
in the ethical vision: To be genuinely at home in this world, we have to affirm our essential
homelessness, a homelessness illuminated by shifting ideals of genuine
dwelling, figures of home and precarious conjectures about what it might
mean to dwell near the centre ... every attempt to step into the true
centre, to come home... more especially to make the house into such a
home denies the true ec-centricity of human dwelling - an ec-centricity
that needs to be thought in relation to a centre, but a centre that
withdraws whenever we seek to seize it. Joseph
Kleihues - 'architecture as...' Joseph Kleihues' piece Architecture
is Rare in Ethics and
Architecture (ed Capelli et al) is special because its layout as
blank verse indicates clearly that it is addressing the way we can
think, almost the way we can believe. While he doubtless advisedly
speaks of 'architecture', I think his thoughts apply across the
whole built environment field. Architecture/built environment can be
humourless, malevolent, even nothing. But it can also encourage people
and renew places. Unsuspecting,
The
following are examples of specific cross-links which can readily be
found between the two sets of texts:
Barbour, Ian (1992) Ethics
in an Age of Technology Collier, Jane (2005) Moral
imagination and the practice of architecture in Ray, Nicholas (ed) architecture
and its ethical dilemmas Fewings, Peter (2009) Ethics for
the built environment Golany, Gideon S (1995) Ethics
and Urban Design Harries Karsten (1997) The Ethical
Function of Architecture Hauerwas, Kleiheus, Joseph Paul (1990). Architecture
is Rare in Ethics and
Architecture ed The
Lutyens, Mary (1980, 1991) Edwin
Lutyens London: Black Swan Books Mills, Mary E (2001) Biblical
Morality: Moral Perspectives in Old Testament Narratives Oliver, Giles (2005) Responsive practice
in Ray, Nicholas (ed) architecture
and its ethical dilemmas Oppenheimer, Helen (2001) Making
Good Patelli, John et al (eds) Ethics
and Ray, Nicholas (ed) architecture and
its ethical dilemmas Saint, Andrew (2005) Practical
wisdom for architects: the use of ethics in Ray, Nicholas (ed) architecture
and its ethical dilemmas Sedgwick, Timothy F (1987)
Sacramental Ethics Short, John (1991) The Humane City:
Cities as if People Matter Soeters, Sjoerd (2005) On being a
humble architect in Ray, Nicholas (ed) architecture
and its ethical dilemmas Spector, Tom (2001) The Ethical Architect Ventre, Francis T Paul (1990). Regulation:
a realisation of social ethics in Ethics
and Architecture ed John Patelli et al Watkin, David (2001)
Morality and Architecture Revisited Weber, Hans-Ruedi (1986) Living
in the Image of Christ Williams, HA (1972) True
Resurrection Wogaman, J Philip (1986) Economics
and Ethics Wood, GF (!966) A
Defence of Theological Wright, Frank (1988) Exploration
into Goodness |
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