Professional Ethics for Architects (PcM)

What is the best thing a professional can do in given situations? The answer is often based upon ethics accepted as being relative to that profession. Such ethics are sets of moral principles, especially ones relating to, or affirming a specified group, field or form of conduct. Ethics seek to address, ahead of time, questions that resonate within many occupations.

This course will set forth and discuss principles used by architects to prioritize decisions and establish hierarchies, when various situations arise.

Several sets of guidelines seek to establish either ‘standards’ or ‘rules’ for this purpose. While standards are purely advisory, rules are enforceable. Rule violations are grounds for disciplinary action, expulsion from a professional organization or forfeiture of a license to practice architecture.

Our goal will be to somewhat define, ethics and accepted principles which are both mandatory and useful for design professionals in given scenarios.

Upon successful completion of this module, the student will be able to:

• Explain what is being referred to, when ethics are being discussed for architects
• Recognize the difference between ethical standards and rules
• Identify sources of ethical standards, with which architects are expected to comply
• Examine how ethical principles are incorporated into actual laws governing the licensure of architects

Paul Spite, BS, BA
AFD Consulting, Founder and Principal

Paul is a Registered Architect with over forty years of experience, a course developer and has been a teacher in multiple venues in the past. He is also a writer in many venues, having developed many studies, a few published articles, numerous short stories, multiple screenplays, two non-fiction manuals for church design and one novel. More to the focus of this endeavor, Paul has also created presentations for twenty-six lunch and learn presentations for building material manufacturers, webinars covering the subjects of Aging-in-Place and Architectural Acoustics and eleven distance learning courses for architects, engineers and contractors. As he nears retirement from managing his small architectural practice, Paul hopes to focus even more of his energy on teaching and on course development.