How does architecture affect us?

How do buildings leave manifestations when we see them? Are they not just shapes and forms that were just scaled to a bigger size? These mere objects are inanimate, so how do they speak to us? 

      To put in a simpler way, try comparing objects to people's facial expressions. They too are shapes that we create on our face, like the curvature of a smile, or when eye brows form 2 lines pointing towards the nose. And we know that when lips form a curve a person is smiling and it expresses a happy feeling. These too are merely shapes, yet we know what it means to us because of our experiences with these shapes. When we were newly born we knew nothing of facial expressions until our mothers and fathers smiled at us or laughed at our adorable baby butts, we then knew that the shapes on their faces meant something.

And if we look back at our grade 8 platonic solids, we know that each platonic solid symbolizes something. Tetrahedron is the most mobile of all solids, and it represents fire. While fire is powerful and independent as it is self-sustaining. If we live each day seeing giant tetrahedral structures nearby, how would it affect us? Would we become like Ancient Egyptians working as a whole to build giant structures? What gave them the ambition to build great monuments like the Sphinx? Could it be because of the colossal pyramids seen in every direction? Since pyramids are tetrahedral like structures, could those be what gave the Egyptians their inner flame that allowed them to accomplish their title?

Another way for buildings to speak to us is when they resemble memories and events. When I look at an old French apartment with balconies and plants that flourish on them, it reminds me when I was still a totoy, crawling down the hallway of my grandparent's house and entering the balcony. My grandmother loved plants and flowers so she often watered her plants on the balcony. As I was entering the balcony, the strong scent of flowers that eddies with the wind flew to my face, I was happy with those simple joy and warm feelings. So that explains the emotions i feel when I look at French architecture. It's simplicity appears to me to be touching and warming.

 Disclaimer: i did not take these photos, i only used them for educational purposes.

ideas and pictures came from the book Architecture Of Happiness by Alain de Botton