At the closing session March 8 of a course in "Ethical Dilemmas in the Practice of Architecture," taught in the Winter Quarter by Jerome Diepenbrock AIA, Rena M. Klein AIA, with others of the AIA Seattle Practice/Ethics Committee, students from the UW Department of Architecture presented their class projects: design ethics manifestos, offered in graphic and written text format.

L-R: Rena Klein, Nahoko Ueda, Sara Wise, Suni Hatcher, Jerome Diepenbrock

Joshua Cloud, Mark Haizlip, Myer Harrell, Suni Hatcher, Yamani Hernandez (also known to design community colleagues as the 2004 Denice Hunt K-12 Intern), Edward Rossier, Nahoko Ueda, and Sara Wise brought forward personal manifestos in which they described the ethical values they believe make good architects and good architecture.

Rena Klein (l) reviews Suni Hatcher's manifesto, as Marga Rose Hancock looks on.

Rena Klein notes: "The students inspired me with their energy, intelligence and sincere concern for the challenges they will face as design professionals. Through the use of real-life case studies, we considered a variety of challenging practice situations; and although the class was supposed to end at 9:30 PM, it often ran late because the students were so engaged in their conversation about these issues. I was impressed by the idealism and courage with which the students approached what it means to be an ethical architect, create good buildings and do good for the world."

Another member of the Practice/Ethics Committee, Bruce Marvin, attended most of the sessions, observing: "The students, with Jerome and Rena's leadership, engaged in some truly challenging, and at times, profound inquiry into the ethics of design. The course was a real eye-opener for this attorney, who heretofore held a rather narrow and mechanistic view regarding how ethical concepts might inform professional practice."

The Practice/Ethics Committee hopes to collaborate with the students in developing additional uses for their work, including possible presentation at a Design Ethics Forum – the Committee's ongoing program of professional exploration and learning about ethical issues in design practice.