User:Curemeslier/sandbox

Philippe d'Anjou is an architecture professor whose work focuses on design theory and philosophy. His work addresses the issue of design ethics from an existential approach in relation to individual freedom. Drawing on the existentialist philosophy of Sartre and deBeauvoir, he has developed a novel theory of design ethics called Existential Design Ethics and the concept of the Project of the project in design. He is the first to address the issue of existential ethics in design and architecture centered on subjectivity and individual freedom by drawing on the existentialist philosophy of Sartre and deBeauvoir.

Design freedom
In his work, d'Anjou asserts that designers always have freedom of design choices and actions within a specific design situation. The limits of the design situation are the frame within which design freedom takes place.

Design Ethics
d'Anjou's work resituates and conceptualizes design within the sphere of practical philosophy, i.e., ethics, in regard to the three fundamental levels of ethics in design : professional, applied, and existential. He argues that design ethics in terms of professional practice and theoretical discourse always refers to the two traditional ethical traditions of duty ethics and virtue ethics, i.e., imperative and attractive ethics; existential ethics grounded in individual freedom is never considered and missing. He argues that in order to fully understand the ethical essence of design, existential ethics has to be contemplated. His work does so by articulating design ethics within an existentialist framework in relation to : 1) the design agency that is both the individual (designer, client, user, community, educator, student, etc.) and the designed – which goes on designing – and 2) concepts such as intentional action, freedom of choice, responsibility, engagement, value, and authenticity.

So conceptualized, the designer makes design projects a locus where the relationship Design-Project-Ethics becomes integral and essential. As ways for humans of being in, inventing, and inhabiting the world, design plays a crucial role in defining the human project – how we choose to exist within nature, humanity, and technology (artificial). Thus, design becomes a place of encounter of different levels of human projects where ethics is called upon. In that sense, through the built environment, the act of design, and the project, the designer is ethically responsible at three levels: 1) for what one becomes as both a person and a professional; 2) for the others; and 3) for the relationship self-others-world.

Existential design ethics
The work of d'Anjou explores the different layers of ethics in design and architecture by adding the forgotten one, i.e. the existential ethics. He introduces the concept of existential design ethics, which refers to the existential freedom of the individual in the design practice as the very foundation of design ethics. Authenticity is the primary layer of ethics in design from where the other layers such as ethical theories, duty, virtue, utility, and adding feminism, hedonism, etc, and professional and applied ethics are chosen as possibilities and options so as to ground design ethics in the concrete of design practice.

Project of project
As a conscious action directed towards an end that aims at transforming the state of the world, design makes each of the designer’s initiatives a project at different levels: individual project, social project, environmental project, existential project, political project, etc; and these are holistically embedded in and disclosed through the more specific project of the built environment, such as the architectural project. Hence, the question of the Project of the project in design, and in architecture in particular, that can be situated according to the individual, social, material, and existential dimensions, and to ethics as the fundamental choice and project of being

Publications

 * “Beyond Duty and Virtue in Design Ethics.” (Translated in Chinese by Miranda Qumin), In Design Research: the Design Industry and Design, edited by Li Yan Zu, 163-173. Chongqing: Chongqing University Press, 2011.
 * “An Ethics of Freedom for Architectural Design Practice.” Journal of Architectural Education 64, 2 (2011): 141-147.
 * "An Ethics of Authenticity in the Client-Designer Relationship." The Design Journal 14, 1 (2011): 28-44.
 * "An Alternative Model for Ethical Decision-Making in Design: a Sartrean Approach." Design Studies 32, 1 (2011): 45-59.
 * "Beyond Duty and Virtue in Design Ethics." Design Issues 26, 1 (2010): 97-107.
 * "Toward an Horizon in Design Ethics." Science and Engineering Ethics 16, 2 (2010): 355-370.
 * "The Existential Self as the Locus of Sustainability in Design." In Design Philosophy Papers: Collection Four, edited by Anne-Marie Willis, 13-20. Ravensbourne: Team D/E/S Publications, 2008.
 * (W/Weiss, G.) "The Missed Project in New Urbanism." In Regional Architecture and Identity in the Age of Globalization, edited by Jamal Al-Qawasmi et al., 465-474. Tunis: CSAAR Press, 2008.
 * "The Existential Self as the Locus of Sustainability in Design." Design Philosophy Papers 3-4 (2007).
 * (W/ Weiss, G.) "The Forgotten Project in New Urbanism." Design Philosophy Papers 2 (2007).
 * "The Ethos of the Project in Architecture." In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Arts & Humanities Held in Honolulu, Hawaii 14-17 January, 2007.
 * "The Project as Encounter with the Others: Towards an Ethical Opportunity in Design." In Getting Real, Design Ethos Now, edited by Renee Cheng and Patrick J. Tripeny, 465-470. Washington DC: ACSA Press, 2006.
 * "Design & the Imperative of Ethics: from Freedom to Moral Freedom." In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Arts & Humanities Held in Honolulu, Hawaii 13-16 January, 2006.
 * "The Project of the Project in Design." In New Design Paradigms: Proceedings of the International Design Congress-IASDR Held in Yunlin, Taiwan 1-4 November 2005.
 * "Design as Ethically Being in the World." In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Arts & Humanities Held in Honolulu, Hawaii 12-15 January, 2005.
 * "Theoretical & Methodological Elements for Integrating Ethics as a Foundation into the Education of Professional & Design Disciplines." Journal of Science & Engineering Ethics 10, 2 (2004): 211-218.