But such rich signification is missing from non-places. What meaning or message is inscribed on a featureless chain store, or a generic hotel lobby, or the bleak urban “plaza” that surrounds many a skyscraper? What thoughts are inspired, what emotions are stirred by a row of beige cubicles, or a classroom housed inside a windowless trailer? We are set adrift in such spaces, alienated and purposeless. This is not simply a question of aesthetics; it is a question of what we think, how we act, who we are.
