New Challenges in Seismic Design - Earthquake Engineering for Structural Design - page 26

(b)
Figure 1.10 Architectural expression of seismic strengthening: (a) Apartment
building in Berkeley, California: (b) The University Hall in Berkeley, California
1.7 SOME ETHICAL DILEMMAINSEISMIC DESIGN
The Interests of economy, safety function and aesthetics rarely, if never, work
together. More typically they run in opposite directions. In many situations the
owners, structural engineers and architects play a different role with different
opinions in relation to the problem of reducing the construction costs. This conflict
of interest must be regulated by the professional conscience. For protecting the
designer against this kind of pressures some professional codes have been
elaborated by the State administrations. Structural engineers and architects, in their
roles as building design professionals, enter into a special agreement with the
general public: the State will protect their monopoly on certain segments the
construction industry by allowing onlyregistered engineers and architects to design
buildings; the design professionals will have, in return, the duty to protect the
public welfare in the built environment, by respecting the code rules. Therefore,
the main purpose of a seismic code, as any other building code, is to protect life,
health and public welfare. In ethical terms, such a code regulates the given actions
on the basis of their consequences for the public (Spector, 1997).
The code mission is quite clear. The application, however, requires judgments
and compromises due to the fact that a big gap still exists between the progressive
knowledge and codification. Academics and researchers are devoted to research
activity, but structural engineers are professionals and not researchers. So, they are