Morality

Morality is “a doctrine or system of moral conduct” (www.m-w.com).


The word morality, as used in architecture or urban planning, is used by design critics, particularly George Marshall in “Architecture & Morality,” to hold architects and planners to a higher standard of design.   In this sense, the act of making a building or designing a city has particular values attached to it, and these values have certain moral implications.  In the example of the World Trade Center, the characteristics of “iconic” and “progressive” are set against those of environmental sensitivity.  As two contrasting sides, the designer’s success is viewed as his or her ability to create a morally correct architecture, one that places greater emphasis on environmental sensitivity than iconic or progressive values.






The image of the Gazprom Tower in St. Petersburg, Russia is an example of the public and government alike questioning the morality of tall buildings in urban cores.  St. Petersburg, a city modeled after European cities, is comprised of typically five to six story buildings.  This proposed tower, as is argued by the citizens, does not respect the historic architecture of the existing city (http://www.speroforum.com/a/21476/Gazprom-Skyscraper-Debate-Sees-Rare-Rift-in-Russian-Elite).



Another example of the word “morality” being used in relation to architecture is from David Watkin, a British architectural historian. 


“Watkin first came to wide international attention, however, with his book Morality and Architecture: The Development of a Theme in Architectural History and Theory from the Gothic Revival to the Modern Movement (1977), re-published in expanded form as Morality and Architecture Revisited (2001). The basic premise of his argument is that the language with which modernist architecture is described and defended is rooted in the false notion of the Zeitgeist or “the spirit of the age”, as put forward by German Idealist philosopher Friedrich Hegel, so that any opposition to modernist architecture – and here he has in mind the revival of classical and traditional architecture, which he has championed in his writings - are condemned as “old-fashioned”, irrelevant, anti-social, and even immoral” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Watkin_%28historian%29).

by Branden Clements