Architectural governance and the coordination of building culture: An exploratory reflection

The entirety of a region’s architectural expressions, that is, its building culture, has a strong impact on a region’s atmosphere. Being a collective and networked endeavour, building culture is difficult to coordinate. Against this background, this chapter presents an empirically informed reflection on architectural governance. The chapter is based on a multiple case study which compares five regions in the European Alps in terms of their coordination mechanisms in the areas of architecture and spatial planning, that is, architectural governance. The analysed regions include Grisons (Switzerland), Vorarlberg, Tyrol (both Austria), South Tyrol and Trentino (both in Italy). By combining conceptual considerations with empirical evidence, the chapter concludes with hypothesised relationships between architectural governance, building culture, socio-economic development dynamics and tourism.