A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SELECTED CODES OF ARCHITECTURAL PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN IRAN AND WESTERN COUNTRIES

Ethics and ethical charters have a direct impact on the quality of architecture. The aim of this research is to conduct a comparative study of selected professional ethical charters in architecture in Iran and the West to improve and enhance the ethical charters of architecture in Iran. This research is of a comparative nature, and to achieve the research objective, the principles of professional ethics have been extracted based on theoretical foundations and background. Subsequently, a deductive approach was used to analyze the content of ethical charters in five architectural ethics charters from the West and two architectural ethics charters from Iran. The comparison of two ethical charters in Iran with the five studied ethical charters indicates that, in terms of the frequency of ethical components, the ethical charter for building engineering has more similarities with the ethical charter of the Society of Consulting Engineers than with the Western charters. The content of many ethical components in these charters is identical and synonymous, and in some cases, based on the context and existing unethical issues in architecture and construction in the country, they possess some unique ethical principles. The findings of the research indicate that ethical charters are largely formulated to serve the interests of the profession. The revision of architectural ethical charters should not only focus on serving the interests of the architecture profession and architects but also pay special attention to human values and dignity.