Architectural Design and Regulation

From the earliest periods of architecture and building, architects’ actions have been conditioned by rules, regulations, standards, and governance practices. These range from socio-cultural and religious codes seeking to influence the formal structure of settlement patterns, to prescriptive building regulations specifying detailed elements of design in relation to the safety of building structures. In Architectural Design and Regulation the authors argue that the rule and regulatory basis of architecture is part of a broader field of socio-institutional and political interventions in the design and development process that serve to delimit, and define, the scope of the activities of architects.

The book explores how the practices of architects are embedded in complex systems of rules and regulations. The authors develop the understanding that the rules and regulations of building form and performance ought not to be counterpoised as external to creative processes and practices, but as integral to the creation of well-designed places. The contribution of Architectural Design and Regulation is to show that far from the rule and regulatory basis of architecture undermining the capacities of architects to design, they are the basis for new and challenging activities that open up possibilities for reinventing the actions of architects.

Rob Imrie is Professor of Geography at King’s College London. He is author and co-author of five books, and has written widely in international journals on issues ranging from urban policy and regeneration to disability and the built environment. His background is in geography, sociology, and planning studies and he has a doctorate in industrial sociology.

Emma Street has recently completed a doctorate in urban geography at King’s College London. Her background is in geography, and she has a masters’ degree in public policy. Her research interests include, urban planning and politics, the role of the private sector in place-shaping, and architecture and the built environment.