Beyond the Anthropocentric–Ecocentric Spectrum: An Ethics of Ecological Design for the Economics-First Building

Ecological design is often evaluated through approaches to sustainability, focused on doing less harm, and through an ethical spectrum running from anthropocentric to ecocentric architecture. This chapter argues that both frameworks are insufficient. Drawing on regenerative design theory and the distinction between instrumental and intrinsic value, it shows that reducing harm cannot be the final ethical horizon of ecological design. It then argues that the anthropocentric-to-ecocentric spectrum does not adequately explain forms of ordinary construction in which economic returns take priority over human and ecological considerations. Using the financialized rental-housing markets of New York City and Berlin as recurring, well-documented empirical reference points, the chapter proposes an analytical category—economics-first architecture—to describe building production in which financial priorities take precedence over human and ecological considerations. It concludes that a complete ethics of ecological design must be simultaneously philosophical, ecological, empirical, and political-economic.