Sir Peter Cook describes his talk as a the first of three related lectures. While acknowledging the attractive simplicity of dogmatic rules, Cook argues instead for the idiosyncratic, the irregular, and deviations. Cook describes the leftover infrastructure of urban environments as layered relics of past organizational systems. Cook stresses the importance of clearly communicating ones intentions through innovative detailing and construction methods. Cook stresses simplicity, style, and similarity, illustrating them with an entry in a tower competition. Cook concludes with a discussion of some ongoing projects in his office, including educational buildings in Vienna and Australia, relating their design to some of the qualities he has been discussing.