Legislating Architecture explores how architecture is shaped by law and other societal regulatory systems. The film, directed by Arno Brandlhuber and Christopher Roth, presents excerpts from conversations conducted with architects including Luigi Snozzi, Adam Caruso, Tom Emerson, and Christian Kerez. It is a point of departure for an issue of ARCH+ also entitled Legislating Architecture, which was the product of a collaboration between Arno Brandlhuber and Tobias Hönig. The German edition of the publication has the subtitle “Gesetze gestalten!” which can be read as both a declaration that laws design, and as an exhortation to design laws. This phrase suggests that architecture is not only determined by regulations, but that it also has the power to create regulations.

Arno Brandlhuber is an architect and urban planner. Since 2003 he has been Chair of Architecture and Urban Research at the Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg. He also directs the nomadic master’s program a42.org and is the founder of Brandlhuber+ Emde, Burlon, a practice working from Berlin since 2009. His research interests include the spatial production of the Berlin Republic and legislation as a determining factor in both building practice and theoretical discourse.

Christopher Roth is an artist working in Berlin whose practice includes films, theatre projects, and novels. His research project 80*81, carried out with Georg Diez in 2010 and 2011, consists of eleven books of photographs, interviews, and original documents that comprise a guide and almanac for the years 1980 and 1981. The project was accompanied by conferences in Berlin, New Delhi, São Paulo, and Johannesburg and theatre performances in Hamburg, New York, and Zurich.