There Is No Alibi in Designing: Responsibility and Dialogue in the Design Process

Abstract

This paper explores a potential relation between architecture and ethics intrinsic to design processes when understood in terms of dialogue or conversation. We draw on separate but related research interests: one focused on the design process, especially the significance of drawing, and the other on the ethics of designing for the public realm, with reference to Bakhtinian dialogism. Our investigation concentrates on two aspects of the design process both of which can be thought of in terms of conversation – first, the relation between architect and Other, and second, the act of drawing. Through this, we support the idea that in design the ethical and the aesthetic cannot be meaningfully separated from one another. Instead, their relation must be understood as a dialogue in and of itself, as well as part of the dialogue between all participants in the design process.

Keywords

aesthetics, ethics, drawing, design, architecture, conversation, dialogue

How to Cite

Kenniff, T. & Sweeting, B., (2014) “There Is No Alibi in Designing: Responsibility and Dialogue in the Design Process”, Opticon1826 16, Art. 1.

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Authors

Thomas-Bernard Kenniff (The Bartlett, UCL, London)
Ben Sweeting (Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton The Bartlett, UCL, London)

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