What appearance requirements can the building authority prescribe? (Author: Andreas Hawlik) In principle, the building authority does not prescribe any rules regarding the townscape, but monitors compliance with them. The intended townscape is laid down in the building regulations and sometimes there are also supplementary guidelines or bylaws. These documents specify which visual characteristics a planned building must have in order to fit in with the existing or intended townscape. Essential features such as minimum or maximum building height, closed or open construction, front garden and the shape of the roof are the basis of the townscape and are so clearly defined in the development plans that there is usually no discussion about them. if there are clearly defined regulations on materials, window sizes and proportions and, for example, roof windows, as is often the case in historic town centres, we as architects have sufficient "rules of the game", so we can orientate ourselves well in our work and adhere to them. The situation becomes difficult for us when the "townscape" or "local cityscape" has to be taken into account during planning, but this desired image is not precisely defined and the expectations of politicians, authorities, developers and architects diverge. In this case, the situation arises that forms the basis of the question: What can the authorities prescribe? This requires our intuition, our experience, but also sometimes our courage to disregard established conventions. The function of the authority is to represent the political will, i.e. the democratic interest. It is usually possible to reach a consensus on the design with the authority's experts. However, we often have to realise later during the building negotiations that any changes are perceived negatively, especially by the residents. In this case, the reason given is usually the need to preserve the townscape - even if the project complies with the development plan, i.e. the "intended townscape".