Built Environment Ethics and Community Participation

Architectural research can affect occupants, communities, culturally significant places and public decision-making. Authors should consider these effects from project design through publication.

People and occupied settings

Interviews, surveys, observation, sensor data and other research involving people require appropriate ethics review or informed consent. Authors must protect privacy and avoid publishing information that creates a foreseeable security or safety risk.

Community participation

Community-engaged work should explain who participated, how decisions were made, what was returned to participants and how disagreement or unequal power was addressed. Local and Indigenous knowledge must be represented with permission and proper attribution.

Heritage and displacement

Work concerning heritage, redevelopment, informal settlements or displacement should report affected perspectives and relevant legal or custodial requirements rather than treating buildings and land as context-free objects.