Buildings talk to us

A rarely remarked upon feature of buildings is that they tell us something about themselves and its broader view of the world.

The Mauritshuis, a museum in the Hague completed in the classical style in the early nineteenth century, tells us that its dignified and stately, calm and rational, but also a place for tenderness. It reminds us that we are a tiny moment in a long history.

Some buildings can be loud or impatient. In Madrid, there's a large residential block that speaks of being bored with convention. The building is not necessarily new, but certainly up for fun.

Then there are buildings covered with dreary graffiti that talks of lack...