Where once the orchards of the traditional biscuit-maker family, Bahlsen, stood a new urban quarter is now being developed. The Seelhorster Garten is a pastoral quarter consisting of a mixture of residential and office uses. The quarter's harmonious design language spans both the the "village" area, with its fully-detached single-family homes, as well as the urban center at the Seelhorster plaza. Although only a few design regulations were applied to the buildings they were rigidly and thoroughly implemented. Since 2001 AS+P has been serving as the town architect to ensure the design regulations are upheld. Whereas the regulations of a zoning plan or design code are static, a town architect is capable of reacting flexibly to new ideas and developments. Through constant dialogue between the builder, his architect and the town architect a high standard of design can be achieved. The design guidelines developed for the Seelhorster Garten provide the foundation upon which the individual architects base their designs in the implementation phase. Unique interpretations of the guiding architectural vocabulary by the various architects result in a diverse and highly demanding design language for the new quarter as a whole.