People enjoy a great piece of music by listening to an inspiring, passionate performance from their favorite artist. They don't merely read the sheet music instead. Why? Because music is fundamentally an emotional experience. Although highly ordered and structured, music's purpose is emotive, not analytical. In the end, the qualitative trumps the quantitative. 

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The same is true of places. We know this instinctively when we encounter beautiful spaces in nature. What practical utility does Yosemite Valley offer beyond its aesthetic beauty? Very little, unless you're a rock climber. Yet over 4 million people from all across the globe flock there every year. Why? Simply to bask in its beauty and magnificence. There is something deep and curative about natural beauty. We know this at a level so fundamental it seems to underlie cognition itself.

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Great architecture serves a parallel purpose in the built world... (read more)