After an introduction to the topic, the book works through a series of case studies—largely based on the work of Alex Lehnerer—that explore how law shapes the built environment and the practice of architecture. Why do cities look the way they do? How is this informed by law? And how can architects and planners start appropriating regulations like zoning and building codes, treating them as pro-active instruments and design tools, rather than obstacles? How can we understand the confrontation with regulation as a creative endeavor—“not as remainder, as if creativity occurs despite regulation, but instead as operator, as if creativity occurs within regulation,” as Nick Beech writes in the lead-out of this issue? In the final part, the editors investigate the phenomenon from the opposite point of view, and ask to what degree design can produce laws. This line of argument is an exhortation to understand the designing of rules as an integral component of architectural practice. Can architects influence the conditions that govern their own practice? Can we envision an empowered architecture that challenges the status quo by being a catalyst for renegotiation? Read less