Ethics provide a method for architects to deal with the dilemmas they often encounter in practice. This course provides a framework for analyzing difficult situations through ethics. It introduces the moral foundations theory, virtue ethics, deontological ethics, social contract ethics, and utilitarian ethics. Using this framework and the AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, the course examines a number of scenarios.

This course focuses on practice management from the perspective of supporting both public welfare and client interests through enhanced service delivery. The emphasis on public welfare is critically important because architects, as professionals and service providers, must prefer client interests over their own, and when the issues are clear, they must prefer public interests over both. This suggests that, if circumstances warrant, architects must raise client values to align them with public values. Indeed, the AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct implores members to “promote and serve the public interest.” So how can architects and their practices best operationalize professional obligations to clients and the public? They can engage in the following strategies that are discussed in the course: Provide public interest professional services. Share practice knowledge and experience with colleagues and the public. Conduct practice-based research. Investigate emerging technologies. Cultivate firm culture that supports learning and innovation and includes justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) initiatives. Collaborate effectively to facilitate client and stakeholder relations.

This course is intended to prepare the architect to recognize and respond appropriately to ethical dilemmas encountered at work, especially when engaging with forceful clients or clients with differing values. The three scenarios presented here will help the architect successfully recognize potential ethical challenges and build effective strategies to meet their duty to the client and the public.

Transitioning from employee to sole proprietor of an architecture firm is the dream of many architects, but it comes with a need to understand licensing laws more fully and have a good grasp of acceptable rules of conduct for the profession. This course examines the ethical and legal considerations involved when an architect sets out to establish their own practice. In particular, this course considers how legal requirements for soliciting work may vary between jurisdictions.

Some of the most common disciplinary actions against architects consist of those related to the use of the architect’s seal. In these case studies, we review the legal requirements and ethical considerations related to the use of the architect’s seal, responsible control, the boundaries between architecture and other disciplines, and interstate practice.