Ethics and Architecture

Ethics and architecture: Where do you draw
the line?
1 OCTOBER, 2015BY RICHARD WAITE, MERLIN FULCHER
While Zaha Hadids treatment by BBC Radio 4s Today programe brought sympathy from fellow
architects, the interview has prompted a discussion of architects moral responsibility,
reports Richard Waite
The professions response to Zaha Hadids grilling and subsequent walkout on

Radio 4s Today programme was almost universally sympathetic.
The architect, who was being interviewed by broadcaster Sarah Montague about
winning the Royal Gold Medal, was questioned about the deaths of 1,200 workers on
her Qatar 2022 centrepiece stadium.
An annoyed Hadid prickled and gave a robust defence. The basis of the counterattack, if
not the snappiness, was understandable nobody has died on her practices Al-Wakrah
project. Another dig at Hadid over the budget on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium and
the pleasant breakfast chat was abruptly terminated.
http://googleweblight.com/?lite_url=http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/ethics-and-architecture-where-do-youdraw-the-line/8689785.fullarticle&ei=gH5zAxmc&lc=enID&s=1&m=668&host=www.google.co.id&ts=1458539523&sig=APY536y8EColmMJ_Q1ebXKGws6bygNspBw
Almost immediately the interview and Hadids reaction were picked up by social media,
and the story spread rapidly. The incident was reported inThe Independent, in numerous
columns on The Guardians website, in both The Times and The Sunday Times and
even in the Metro.
The BBCs Nick Robinson, although confused about the stadiums location, thought it
interesting enough to tweet to his 497,000 followers: Memorable interview walk-out by
Dame Zaha Hadid on @BBCr4today as she insists no deaths of workers on her Dubai
World Cup stadium site.
While Montagues unexpected cross-examination was clumsy and ill-researched, its
intentions had been to prod at the ethical responsibility of architects working for
governments and regimes around the globe.
In that sense it worked. The interview kick-started a media-wide debate about the
morals of architecture and the idea that buildings are designed in an ethical void.
On these more general principles Times columnist Janice Turner was unwilling to let
Hadid and fellow architectural stars such as Norman Foster off the hook.
She writes: Architects have a higher moral duty than other artists, since they have the
greatest power to shape society.
Theres an ethical void

Architect Alan Berman of Berman Guedes Stretton welcomed the renewed spotlight on
the issues.
Whether architects should take an ethical stance is an important issue to come out of
the BBCs erroneous Zaha interview, he said.
False accusations should not be bandied about, and need correcting, but it raises the
issue of architects relation to society and to whom they owe moral allegiance.
All too often, architects consider themselves free to design whatever their personal
artistic urge leads them to the wilder and wackier the better, with the design media
egging them on.
Theres an ethical void with architects banging their chests producing individualistic
buildings for an increasingly atomised, divided society.
Architects can enjoy the glitz and applause of the new world order
Architects can enjoy the glitz and applause of the new world order. Its a game played
by the financial and corporate elite of clients, the name of which is: grab the most for me
and the hell with anyone else.
Julia Burden of St Albans-based Ver Architecture believes that, while the acceleration of
change and globalisation has made it hard to separate ethical finances and project
funding from bad, the likes of Hadid needed to be seen to be doing the right thing on the
international stage.
Famous international architects wield a lot of influence and should not fall into the role
of enablers of oppression and ecological damage, she said.
They have the potential to promote the vision of undemocratic leaders by creating
monuments to their power and to endorse a veneer of respectability to their projects, so
this potential should be considered wisely.
However, Piers Taylor of Invisible Studio was less critical of the profession.
Hadid is not a whipping post for the ills of the construction industry
For possibly the first time, I found myself having enormous sympathies with Hadid
during her interview, he said. Like it or not, Hadid is not a whipping post for the ills of
the construction industry and the built environment.
Architects continue to be blamed, however, yet are involved in as little as 10 per cent of
all new buildings.
Even so, Taylor thinks there needs to be more guidance for architecture practices to
help them avoid the ethical pitfalls.
Undoubtedly, architecture bodies such as the RIBA need to assist architects with the
tools to change clients behaviour, and need to do more to lobby politicians and create a
change of culture in the delivery of new buildings, he said.
Within this, though, architectural practice needs to question the status quo, rather than
acting as a complicit vehicle for delivering clients capital.
Many practices structure their values towards the commercial market, rather than
around a notion of ethical practice, but architecture isnt merely a service industry
concerned with the production of buildings at best it is an instrument of change.
Architects need to become more critical in practice to help bring about this change by
standing their ground, interrogating clients, processes and prevailing cultural
conditions.
Ben Derbyshire of HTA said the public assumed the profession was more pivotal to
schemes than they actually were.
He was alarmed by the tenor of the questions in the Today interview. The presumption
behind them of the architects responsibility for outcomes is actually well beyond their
reach and influence, he said.
Remember how architects were routinely singled out for the legacy of the social
housing built under successive post-war governments? The criticism usually failed to
recognise the powerful forces behind the political/industrial complex that gave rise to the
worst excesses.
In the media: columnists consider Zaha Hadids ethical

position and whether architects have a wider responsibility
for their buildings
Zaha Hadid: A visionary whose ideas dont always

make sense
Rowan Moore, The Observer, 27.09.15
This [money-no-object status-symbol approach to architecture] exposes Hadid to
another big criticism, that she is complicit in the abuses of those she works for, which
was Sarah Montagues line of attack, unfortunately undermined by the false suggestion
that 1,200 workers had died building the Qatar stadium itself.
Again Hadid could point out that, when it comes to dealing with despots, other architects
are at it too, not to mention the International Olympic Committee, multinational
businesses, respected cultural institutions, the mayor of London and chancellor of
the exchequer.
Again the excuse that theyre all at it only goes so far. It doesnt answer the fundamental
question. What if architects such as Hadid were more principled in their choice of
clients? What if they got together and formed a common front? Might that not be a force
for good? And, even if it is too much to ask architects to change society, the production
of trophies also undermines the architectural values they are supposed to stand fo
Hadids deals with despots come at price

Janice Turner, The Times, 26.09.15
Architects have a higher moral duty than other artists, since they have the greatest
power to shape society. When J-Lo sings for a million dollars for the president of
Turkmenistan or Beyonc for the Gaddafis, they are gilding dictatorships, but their
performances are fleeting.
Whereas architects define how we live and work, how we see ourselves, how the world
sees us. Living in a Brutalist council block narrows your horizons and the belief that you
deserve better. Beijings endless boulevards of shiny prestige buildings have erased its
ancient centre and left its citizens rootless, trapped in the eternal now.
Visiting Nuremberg this summer, looking out at a preserved section of Speers vast Nazi
congress, I understood how Hitler sold the German people his epic vision.
Money, money: where is morality? said the Dalai Lama this week of George Osbornes
visit to China, hawking our infrastructure and turning the page on uncomfortable truths
about democracy and human rights. Power stations or shining stadiums should not be
built in an ethicl void.
Zaha Hadid: A demolition job tries to shake her

foundation
The Sunday Times, 27.09.15
Despite the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, Hadid maintains the British establishment does not
like her. She has never totally left the Arab world behind her and still hankers for the
banks of great rivers such as the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
In Iraq many of my female friends were architects and professionals with a lot of power
during the 1980s while all the men were at war in Iran, she said.
Maybe her futures lies in a past where such successful women received the respect
that she feels she deserves.
Why is Zaha Hadid given a harder time than her

starchitect rivals?
Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian, 24.09.15
Hadid didnt do herself any favours, letting forth a blustering barrage of indignation, but it
was a sloppily researched interview, and yet another example of mainstream media
focusing solely on her work for dubious regimes something that most other architects
of her international profile are also engaged in, but rarely questioned on.
Norman Foster has designed a gigantic pleasure dome and a Palace of Peace and
Reconciliation in Kazakhstan, a regime that rules with an iron fist, cracking down on
freedom of assembly, speech and religion, regularly locking up and torturing critical
journalists and forcibly evicting residents to make way for grand construction projects.
Yet the international press fawns over Fosters bold High-Tech forms.
Rem Koolhaas is engaged in projects across the Middle East, including a vast library
and foundation headquarters currently nearing completion in Qatar, yet the condition of
his construction workers is never the focus of the story.
Architecture would be better off without Zaha

Hadid
Stephen Bayley, The Spectator, 08.08.15z
The localities Hadid often prefers are the back yards of dictators and tyrants. Her latest
buildings always win approval from supine architecture and design media, so work very
well as salvation-via-design for repressive regimes. She has projects in various stages
of completion or disarray in Libya, Iraq, Russia, Qatar, China and Azerbaijan.

The Qatar case, already soiled by the sordid FIFA shenanigans, is interesting. From the
air, Hadids 2022 World Cup stadium (pictured left) with its almond-shaped opening and
labial folds looks bogglingly like giant pudenda. Someone mentioned this and she said,
if you think anything with a hole in it is a vagina, thats your problem.
Other comments:
Roger FitzGerald, chair of ADP:
The interview was poorly researched and anyway it would have been far more appropriate and interesting
to focus on the considerable hurdles Zaha Hadid has had to overcome to achieve success.
We operate now in increasingly global market, and therefore come across different cultures and values.
Its therefore essential to have international professional standards to provide clarity and consistency.
The RIBA should continue with its support for the International Ethics Standards Coalition. It cannot act
alone, but is well-placed to be a leading voice in helping to set shared international standards.
Rafi Segal:
If the architect is to be seen as contributing anything of social significance then the profession, with the
aid of academia, must discuss an ethical code for architecture, needed today more than ever.
Simon Blore, Director, Lead 8 architects:
A lot of the misunderstanding arises from the diminishing role of the architect versus the public perception
of the master builder responsible for all. Of course, architects have a professional duty to design safely
(through CDM in UK), and we will report on unsafe sites when we see them. We also seek to minimise
wasted materials and excessive energy usebut our role during site stages has become increasingly
fragmented in recent times.
The architects role during site stages has become increasingly fragmented
In todays building procurement process of construction managers, contractors, project managers and
sometimes professional client bodies, the design architect is rarely influencing the actual day to day
method of construction seen on site. In many ways this is a good thing, because with site safety
methodologies being undertaken by professional construction experts, this then leaves the designer to
focus on producing great and long-lasting architecture.

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Ethics and architecture: Where do you draw

The professions response to Zaha Hadids grilling and subsequent walkout on

Theres an ethical void

In the media: columnists consider Zaha Hadids ethical

Zaha Hadid: A visionary whose ideas dont always

Hadids deals with despots come at price

Zaha Hadid: A demolition job tries to shake her

Why is Zaha Hadid given a harder time than her

Architecture would be better off without Zaha

of completion or disarray in Libya, Iraq, Russia, Qatar, China and Azerbaijan.

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