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Thomas Fisher: The Latest Architecture and News

Thomas Fisher on The Ethics of Architecture and Other Contradictions

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Why don’t architects often consider the ethics of what they do? Thomas Fisher’s new book, The Architecture of Ethics, digs into this topic in great depth and with engaging insight. At the recent AIA convention in Las Vegas, I sat down with Fisher—former dean of the University of Minnesota College of Design, and now a professor in urban design at the school, as well as director of the Minnesota Design Center—to talk about his book and the ethical dimension of designing and building in the context of contemporary practice.

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More Free Summer Reading: Nine Architecture Books From Routledge Available Throughout August

Wondering what to do with the last, lingering weeks of summer? There's still plenty of time for some enticing summer reading! Peruse this online collection of select books on Architecture, chosen from academic publisher Routledge's titles on themes of Professional Practice and Sustainable Architecture, and available in their entirety for free throughout the month of August.

Including compelling and notable works, these books tackle relevant and significant contemporary issues facing the design world today. See what's available after the break.

Video: The failure of bridges and economies / Thomas Fisher

This interview with professor and author Tom Fisher, Dean of University of Minnesota, is part of a documentary series called “Things May Happen”, in which he describes the dangers of Fracture-Critical Design. This topic is also the subject of his recent book, Designing to Avoid Disaster: The Nature of Fracture-Critical Design. Fisher discusses examples in which our systems, whether they be architectural, structural or even social and financial, fail with disastrous consequences. In a TEDxUMN talk at the University of Minnesota, Fisher spoke about the 1-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis in 2007, the failure of New Orleans’ levees during Hurricane Katrina, the BP Oil Spill on the Gulf Coast, the Wall Street investment bank failures, the housing foreclosure crisis and now the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy. Covering a whole spectrum of “when things go wrong” scenarios, Fisher illuminates the failed foresight in designing systems that are resilient to disaster.

TEDx: Fracture-Critical Design / Tom Fisher

Thomas Fisher, Professor in the School of Architecture and Dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, discusses the subject matter of his most recent book, Designing To Avoid Disaster: The Nature of Fracture-Critical Design.