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less, we do not perceive the structure as such with immediacy
within the concrete situation formed by urban spaces, streets
and plazas. As a rule, it becomes manifest only on the plan,
where structural parallels to other quarters or towns become
recognizable. Plans and maps subject reality to processes of
abstraction, isolating selected structural features and present-
ing an interpretive matrix. We can interpret these as the key to
the character of an urban district, as the way in which historic
and social structures are registered in systems of access, and
types of development, and in the change from a quarter to
its surroundings. Once recognized, the structure can then be
identified in reality and on location.
Since the emergence of the intellectual tendency known
as Structuralism, it became recognized that architectural
structures often represent wider structures of action, social
relations or thought, and can be interpreted as their expres-
sion. It becomes clear that buildings and towns also derive
their meaning not simply from the circumstance that they are
good to live in, but they are also – to invoke a celebrated sen-
tence by Claude Lévi-Strauss – ‘good to think with’.The experience of sublimity is inherently contradictory. It in-
volves the sensation of being overwhelmed by something that
cannot be comprehended, and at the same time, of mastering
it through aesthetic and intellectual processing. That which
shocks or disturbs makes a more powerful impact than that
which persuades or pleases. Differently than the > meaning
that is expressed by a building, or the > beauty we experi-
ence through disinterested contemplation, the sublime trig-
gers a state of inner movement. We are impressed by the size
of a sublime building, and overwhelming space not simply
through seeing it; we are absorbed into it. When we are over-
come by the immeasurable emptiness of gigantic spaces or by
an extreme overabundance of > light, we find ourselves in a
boundary situation.Sublimity