Harvard Design Magazine 52: Instruments of Service

This compelling issue investigates a fundamental yet evolving question: What do architects truly produce, and how is that role being reshaped today? Focusing on “instruments of service”—the manuals, drawings, and instructions architects create for others to build—the publication explores how these tools mediate relationships with labor, construction, clients, and society. As external pressures and changing values redefine these dynamics, architects themselves emerge as instruments of service, tasked with envisioning more just and sustainable futures. A critical read for architecture professionals, students, and theorists interested in the ethics, agency, and shifting responsibilities of contemporary design practice.