BLACK, WHITE AND MOSTLY GREY:
An incomplete* Ethical Manifesto
*This ethical manifesto will always remain incomplete. My ethics are evolutionary continuing to develop over time as my world perspectives are altered by new life experiences.
Ethics isn’t always about cut and dry answers. A big part of making ethical decisions is being able to open our eyes to a wide range of possibilities and the consequences that can result from the decisions we make. This can be extremely difficult, which is why ethical decisions do not always have simple solutions; there is a complexity to life that extends beyond the ‘black and white’.
Throughout our lives we will subscribe to more than one value in ethics and morality. As such, it’s important to remember that we don’t live in isolation from our fellow human beings; we regularly have to respond to the needs, motivations and actions of family, friends, colleagues and strangers. At some point in time we will be faced with difficult choices with no clear answers, and ultimately, we must live with the consequences of our actions and the decisions we make.
This explains our preference; in human nature, for black-and-white simplicity and a resistance towards complexity. Telling people what seems so much simpler and safer than telling people why. Thinking, conceptualising, perceiving, understanding and comprehending are much more complex than simply commanding and directing. Instead of seeking simplicity, embrace the complexity.
We can be moral and live ethically while staying true to who we are, with our different convictions, passions, backgrounds and personalities. Do your best to learn from life’s complexities and grow through your experiences constantly developing yourself to become more aware and reflective of what is happening around and to you. Life; and ethics, is mostly grey, not black and white.
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
– Ernest Hemingway
Personal development is an ongoing, conscious pursuit of personal growth that has a profound effect on every aspect of our lives. It provides us with the incentive and the means to achieve our full potential. Such developments are vital to our growth, maturity, success and happiness as individuals forming the foundations of our emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual health.
Mistakenly regarded as ‘self-centered’, personal development makes us more world minded expanding our frame of reference to include the people around us as well as those in our communities. As our world expands so does our awareness of the environments; global, societal and professional, and possibilities around us.
It’s imperative that we are constantly investing in our greatest personal asset; ourselves, to become more ethical individuals.
ETHICAL IMPERATIVES:
1. Be curious
2. Be mindful
3. Be courageous
4. Be respectful
5. Be open
6. Be frugal
Keep an open mind
Cultivating an open mind helps us expand our horizons and diversify how we connect with people and how we think. It is a valuable tool for developing our critical thinking, problem solving and reasoning.
Be curious and willing to consider and receive new and different ideas. Being flexible and adaptive to new experiences and ideas gives us more expansive ways of approaching people, situations and solving problems. When we give ourselves more options, better solutions are undoubtedly available to us. Adjust your own conclusions and take on new perspectives. Listen attentively, openly and immerse yourself in new experiences outside your own personal biases and prejudices.
Professional principle
Architects are people who need to know a little bit about a whole lot of things. Our land, climate and cultures are constantly changing and we have a responsibility to design appropriately.
As Architects, it’s essential we are adaptive and capable of a full spectrum of skills so it is crucial we remain curious and keep an open mind. A closed off mind effects our ability to produce architecturally rich outcomes by eliminating options, creating artificial obstacles and hindering exploration.
Practice compassion
Compassion is being present to the suffering of ourselves and those around us. It is an important factor in supporting each other, our communities and the natural environment.
By cultivating and expressing compassion we enlarge our perspectives and identity; focusing beyond ourselves, discovering our commonality with others, realising that just like us, they too experience suffering. Consciously direct your attention to your interactions with people and yourself to be mindful and present. By acknowledging peoples suffering, we can begin to understand their actions and behaviours and therefore connect better and improve our social, professional and ecological relationships.
Professional principle
Architecture is, and should always be an inherently compassionate endeavor serving humanity. The most important architectural works are those that express man’s feeling for a place and consider the people who use the buildings, and whose lives are affected by the structure.
As an architect, it’s important that we are mindful and compassionately consider the entire ecology of a project from the social, cultural, political, environmental, and economic to the aesthetic, with the values of creating mutually beneficial relationships and integrated systems. Compassionate design is good design and good design can improve people’s lives.
Don’t fear failure
The fear of failing can be immobilizing, it can cause us to do nothing and therefore resist moving forward. Be courageous and turn your fear into an asset making it a motivator to achieve your goals.
Failure is informative, it gives us a clearer sense of where we need to go and what we need to get there, it cultivates humility and builds resiliency. These moments that challenge us yield the greatest opportunities for growth as individuals, as members of our communities and as design professionals.
Professional principle
Architects; and the profession at large, rarely admit defeat. We tend to forget the instructive role of failure and the creative spurs embracing failure can produce. Design is not a linear process it requires; and should encourage, a series of trial and error.
As architects, its crucial we remain courageous, take risks and exit our comfort zones to innovate and make ‘better architecture’, Good design solutions are rarely intuitive or natural, don’t fear failure.
Sustain worth
Respect matters. Respect yourself and be respectful of other people, it shows good character and helps to build and maintain relationships. Recognize everyone’s right to be themselves, to make decisions, to have privacy and dignity. Defer judgment and opinion accepting individual differences. Sustain the worth and value of yourself and those around you as human beings. You cannot demand that people respect you, respect is earnt first, by respecting yourself and secondly, by respecting those around you.
Remain honest
One of the key elements in any relationship, be it personal or professional, is the ability to trust and be trusted. Being Honest; with ourselves and with those around us, builds trust. Trust demonstrates that you can be relied upon and forms the foundation upon which relationships are built and produces the confidence we need to conquer life’s problems and encourages us to take risks.
Be Open and Aware, making the commitment to be honest with yourself recognising and owning your flaws and identify areas you could improve. Hold yourself accountable to tell yourself; and others, the truth about your behaviours, thoughts, motivations and actions. If you can’t be honest with yourself, you will not be able to be honest with others. Remember Honesty is not only demonstrated by our words but is exemplified in our actions.
Professional principle
Dishonesty not only hurts our clients it also hurts our firms and our personal reputations. The very existence of the architectural profession is contingent on clients putting their trust in us; as design professionals, often with large sums of money. The relationship architects have with project stakeholders; clients, the community, people financing the project, depends, at its core, on our ability to manage their expectations – that is, our ability to tell people what is possible and isn’t possible.
As an architect, it’s vital we’re open and transparent with our actions throughout the entirety of the design process; being honest and holding ourselves accountable, as all decisions have consequences.
Recognise your stewardship
As beneficiaries of earth and its bounty we should care for our world as stewards; not owners, preserving it for future generations. We are accountable for the care and preservation of the earth and the use of its resources. As stewards, we need to avoid complacency and excessive consumption, using only what is necessary.
Be frugal, wise and show restrain sustaining the health, diversity, and productivity of our environments to meet the needs of present and future generations. We share the responsibility to create and maintain conditions, under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony; social, economic, and otherwise.
Professional principle
With the current state of the global climate and the steady depletion of natural resources, it’s more important than ever that we start to consider the effects of building and infrastructure on the environment. Architecture is an essential arena for sustainable innovation and we have a historic opportunity to minimise the adverse impacts on the built and natural environments; in terms of the building themselves, their immediate surroundings and the broader regional and global setting.
As Architects; and environmental stewards, it’s imperative that we take steps; through design decisions, to alter our profession’s actions encouraging our clients and the design and construction industry to join with us; to be frugal, and change the course of the planet’s future. Sustainable architecture holds the key to an environmentally positive future.