Just as the same song by the Beatles takes on three completely different characters if it is sung by the Beatles themselves, Joe Cocker or Tracy Chapman, so listening to it in turn evokes different states of mind. Likewise when the same architectural subject (a city quarter, a square, an arch etc.) is treated by different people and different epochs.

Each style resonates in people in a different way, so much so that when inhabiting or visiting a space planned by a Renaissance architect, the sense of harmony and balance characteristic of it is perceptible at the physical level as well as the psychological. By contrast, if the space where we live creates a state of malaise, it is probable that sooner or later we find ourselves having to reckon with this fact. (A pity that changing houses or cities is not as simple as changing a CD.)