Archined, with the support of the Creative Industries Fund, has initiated an ongoing project titled “The Persistence of Questioning, Critical Reflections on the Future, on Architecture, and More”. The goal of the project is to encourage critical thinking, and initiate reflective discussions in the industry.

In the chapter called “Is Design Ethics?”, which consists of a cahier and a podcast, we explore the consequences of certain design decisions for society, the earth, and the climate. In what way and to what extent do architects relate to the world and account for this? In short, is design ethics?

Archined presents the carefully designed and written contributions of Pia Prantl, Theo Deutinger and Christopher Clarkson who, with their fictitious Ministry of Ethics, Department of Ethical Design, questions the various distinctions and decisions that contemporary architecture firms make. Marina Otero Verzier argues that the Cartesian grid in particular covers the discipline as well as society like a suffocating system. How can we free ourselves from this? Luce Beeckmans expresses the need to bring more justice into the design process. The cahier concludes with Markus Appenzeller and Thijs van Spaandonk’s call to end the indifference, the Manifesto for a Biospheric Ethics.