Architecture, Ethics, and Technology

An enlightened discussion of all relevant aspects of architecture shows the necessity for revision of commonly held assumptions about the nature of architectural history, theory, representation, and ideation; the production of buildings in the postindustrial city; and professional ethics. These topics provide the basis for the fourteen interdisciplinary papers presented here. The introductory section includes an examination of the epistemological origins of technology in the early modern European context and two alternative visions of ethics and its potential relevance for architecture. The second part presents four perspectives on important questions about how we represent buildings and the ethical values involved in that representation. "Ethics and Poetics in the Context of Technological Production" considers the role of philosophical ethics (i.e., a rational structure of categories in architectural practice) and the possibility, and desirability, of incorporating ethical reflections into the generation of architectural form."The Architectural Uses of History and Narrative in a Technocratic World" explores alternatives for articulating an ethical attitude in forms of discourse other than philosophy and science. These papers were originally presented at the bilingual symposium "Architecture, Ethics, and Technology" held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal in 1991.

"A provocative and useful conjunction of ideas ... The intellectual level of the theme has been set very high ... I know of no other recent event of this sort which combines discourses from distinct disciplines so provocatively." George Baird, Baird/Sampson Architects.

Alberto Pérez-Gómez is Saidye Rosner Bronfman Chair of the History of Architecture at McGill University.Stephen Parcell is professor of architecture at Dalhousie University and author of Four Historical Definitions of Architecture.