Should architects recuse themselves from designing buildings that violate human rights? Raphael Sperry says yes, especially when it comes to two building types that are ethically troublesome: execution chambers and supermax prisons.
Sperry, president of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR), pens an opinion piece for The Architect's Newspaper in which he calls for the AIA to amend its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to prohibit the design of “buildings that violate human rights.” He bases his call on two specific (and rare) building types: execution chambers and supermax prisons.
"Consider that doctors, nurses, psychologists, anesthesiologists, and many other medical professionals have specifically amended their ethics codes to prohibit participation in executions or any act of torture. The World Medical Association code even states, 'The physician shall not provide any premises, instruments, substances, or knowledge to facilitate the practice of torture.'”
"Does the public expect anything less from architects who 'provide premises' as our basic public service? Does our obligation to protect public 'health, safety, and well-being' not include, as a bare minimum, a commitment to stop making places where—admittedly despised—members of the public will be killed or tortured?"
"What’s at stake here is not just the tiny number of contracts for these building types," Sperry argues, "but architects’ professional commitment to public well-being."
Read the full story: AIA Must Do More For Human Rights
Integrating Human Rights Into Energy and Extractive Sector Transitions
Why just transition efforts must move beyond economic considerations by embedding human rights principles into business practices to ensure equitable, transparent, and accountable outcomes for affected communities and workers.
Supreme Court Upholds Unhoused Sleeping Ban
The decision sets the stage for what could be a fierce battle over homelessness policy.
San Diego Ponders How to Declare ‘Housing as a Human Right’
Landlords in the city believe housing rights shouldn’t supersede property rights.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Los Angeles just elected an urban planner as its mayor
Transportation analysts are optimistic that Raman will be more aggressive in addressing transit issues than Bass.
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax survives legal challenge
A panel of judges found that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate injury as a result of New York City's implementation of the tax.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority