Selfishness and Vanity in Architecture Part 1 Dissertation 2019 Idris Salako Coventry University | UK An investigation into the definitions of selfishness and vanity is undertaken to understand its fundamental moral positioning within architecture and art. This dissertation explores the three main perceptions of selfishness and vanity with regards to architects and their architecture. Firstly, ideas surrounding an architect’s pleasure and ownership of a structure are scrutinised, whilst referencing Adolf Loos’ “Ornament and Crime”, in which the act of drawing and design is seen to be sexual, compared to that of the creation of life. While striving for perfection and truth, architects place themselves and their individual perception of perfection into their structures. Thus, creating a building that is a manifestation of their own subconscious, imposed, fallacious truth. Secondly, the personification of a building is examined as architects are seen to pervert normality by ignoring context and creating structures as an ‘ideal’ that is seen to inherit qualities of vanity. Often a building can exhibit humanistic qualities, as the exterior is glorified thus interpreting and dictating societal and cultural needs. Lastly, the dissertation explores the dichotomy in architecture’s relationship with nature. Have we as architects become blind to our responsibility to our sites rather than glorifying them as a result of our own selfish means? Tutor(s) Tulika Gadakari Sebastian Hicks