This paper reflects on a pilot programme to evaluate the use and effectiveness of design coding. It focuses on the roles and relationships between the different stakeholders in the coding process and compares the preconceptions about coding with actual experiences in use. The paper reveals the gulf in professional cultures that impact on the development process. This is underpinned by the continuing struggle between creative, market-driven and regulatory modes of praxis. The paper is polemical in that it points the finger at approaches that potentially undermine the creation of the built environment as a collective endeavour. It is also propositional in that it draws from the evidence-base provided by the pilot programme to propose that design coding could, if used correctly, positively regulate the essentials of urbanism, whilst leaving room for design creativity and enhanced market value. Effective coding can help to mediate the tyrannies of practice.
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