Ethical imagination and design. Design Studies, 30(2) (Click
here to request a copy from the OU Author. Using transcripts of
both architectural and engineering design meetings this chapter
shows how the fields of ethics and design inter-relate,
especially in the area of creative imagination. The chapter
first draws on the concept of a ‘virtual building’ to show how
essential aspects of designerly thinking can apply to ethics. It
then goes on to show how, in the process of designing, designers
engage explicitly and implicitly with ethical issues. The
chapter discusses four extended examples from two design
processes – one involving the design of a crematorium the other
involving the design of a digital pen – before suggesting that
by addressing ethical subjects without framing them in
explicitly ethical ways, the design process allows us to
‘imaginatively trace out the implications of our metaphors,
prototypes and narratives’ a key element of ethical decision-
making according to the philosopher Mark Johnson. A