In the first instance, we want to highlight how laws create design. Why do cities look the way they do? What laws shape our built environment and the architecture profession? Seeing legislation from this point of view posits that the rules governing design—like zoning, or building codes—are unavoidable conditions that, in the best-case scenario, can be “interpreted.” How can architects, designers, and city planners consider these legislative preconditions as pro-active instruments, as design tools, rather than as obstacles? How can we harness these regulations to produce innovative designs?
On the other side of the coin, this issue will invert that perspective and explore the possibility that design creates laws. According to this line of argument, designing laws should be inherent to the practice of architecture. Can designers play an instrumental role in changing and establishing the conditions that govern their own practice, rather than these conditions simply being dictated? Can we envision an empowered architecture that challenges the status quo by operating as a catalyst for renegotiation?
ARCH+ is seeking contributions in the form of critical essays, studies, case studies, projects, realizations, and designs that address national or international aspects of the topic. Because this bilingual issue (in German and English) must be printed in time for an important event in mid-May, drafts must be submitted by January 29, 2016. Due to the short timeframe, we’re giving preference to available drafts or unpublished essays (or essays haven’t been published in one of the respective languages). In individual cases, it will be possible to propose a new paper, if the editorial team deems the proposal significant and the timeframe seems doable. Please submit your proposals in PDF form to: ngo(at)archplus.net.
I. Laws Create Design
Although forces of globalization and financialization are making cities ever more similar, it’s still easy to identify distinct differences between them. New York is different from London; Paris is different from Berlin. Yet why do these cities look the way they do? What regulations and laws have a direct or indirect impact upon their design? Using examples of specific cities, we hope to elaborate the formal differences and trace their foundations in law.
II. Design Creates Laws
Behind all these rules and laws, different agendas are at play—motivations like politics, finances, taxation structures, security, hygiene, or environmental politics. What are examples of flashpoints where architects and planners can influence policy through their practice, and ultimately change it?
III. Case Study Berlin
Using Berlin as our case study, we’ll investigate what laws need to be changed, amended, thrown out, or drafted anew in order to bring about a different Berlin. Considering the city’s acute housing shortage, this Berlin should address questions of mixture (social and functional), gentrification and displacement, adaptive reuse, etc. What would this new Berlin look like?
KEY WORDS: building codes / governmentality / zoning / power, knowledge, architecture / right to the city / empowerment / extra-legal space / state of exception / tax havens / free trade zones / legal gaps / amnesty / Occupy / illegal settlements / squatters / housing / urban planning
The issue Legislating Architecture – Gesetze gestalten is being conceived in collaboration with brandlhuber+. It serves as an follow-up to the theme addressed at ARCH+ features 35: “Legislating Architecture,” which took place in March 2015 at TU Berlin in conjunction with Harvard Studio Berlin/Graduate School of Architecture, Harvard University (with Frank Barkow and Regine Leibinger, Jochen Becker, Arno Brandlhuber, Sam Chermayeff, Florian Hertweck, Niklas Maak, Fritz Neumeyer, Dubravka Sekulic, Jean-Philippe Vassal, Senate Department of Urban Development and the Environment Berlin, et al.).