Ethics and Design

In repeated recent discussions I've had with friends, as well as a common thread of interest I've seen in my architecture related searches one term keeps surfacing.

Ethics

The ethics of design, the ethics dictated by place, the ethics of environmental and social responsibility.

This essay (pdf) by Ed Akins II, AIA LEED AP - Atlanta, Georgia is a good, comprehensive foundation for the topic at hand.

Green Design, sustainability, eco-design, whatever it may be called, is a response to our current crisis of resource depletion and toxic environments. It is morally imperative to find solutions within the field of Architecture because Architecture has caused most of the problems. Therefore green design, or reparative design, is
inseparable from ethical design.

So have begun to think about the ethics involved in my drive and desire to create the GaiaShip - or rather the drive to improve sustainability in human built spaces.

Other than the obvious cycles that move waste streams into valuable inputs elsewhere, what other 'ethics' or human issues should the GaiaShip aspire to address? Looking to Maslows Need Hierarchy; we're already hitting the basics - food, shelter, safety- and we're probably even providing or enabling some of the intangibles - 10,000 like-minded people all living in similar conditions in our eco-microcity are bound to have positive social impacts. I mean you don't chose to live in a place like this (where eco-values are dominant) without some basic commonality with your neighbors, even if it's only 'caring' for the environment.