Abstract

One can distinguish roughly two dimensions in ethics. In its normative dimension, ethics is mainly concerned with conflicts between individuals and in its eudaimonistic dimension, ethics is concerned with “the good life” and how individuals can live it. In both dimensions architecture is closely related to ethics: -Architecture is up to a certain degree public. It concerns always several people or groups, who usually have different and often conflicting interests in a building. -Architecture can-at least in the long run-be understood as a basic human need, since it is extremely important for the well being and “the good life” of every individual, the society as a whole and the natural environment. In this paper, I support the thesis that architecture is closely related to the normative and the eudaimonistic dimension of ethics by exploring the systematic connection between architecture and ethics and illustrate it with examples from the history of architecture.