Laws, norms, standards, rules, regulations, orders, ordinances, protocols, codes. Like any endeavor that unfolds in the public sphere, architecture must submit to laws that exist outside of it, while simultaneously maintaining its cohesion through adherence to laws internal to its own field. However, architecture appears to be more than the mere application of these internal laws or simple submission to external ones.
In this issue of ARQ, we want to highlight cases where architecture has not been content with merely following these rules—operating without encountering them—but has instead pushed them to their extremes, treating them as the central argument of the project. As usual, we are seeking essays, research, and projects that have explored and exploited the possibilities and constraints of both internal and external laws. It is these loopholes that will give substance to issue 104 of ARQ magazine.
