This paper examines how legal and governance frameworks are translated into street-level interface outcomes in an urban context. Using Nanning, China as a case, it compares an urban village, a historic district, and a planned new town to reconstruct the transmission chain from law and planning instruments to everyday street interfaces. Based on policy analysis, field observation and photographic documentation, the study shows that identical legal frameworks generate divergent interface conditions through different governance interfaces. In urban villages, selective enforcement and grassroots negotiation produce flexible but unstable interfaces. In historic districts, heritage regulation combined with unified operation stabilizes highly aestheticized but everyday-constrained interfaces.