Arriving in the city by train, you are greeted by the grand central station—an industrial monument adorned with historic motifs and intricate details. It leaves a striking first impression.

Stepping outside, grand avenues, Leysstraat and then Meir, stretch out before you. Symmetrical historic buildings line its sides, placing you directly on the city's main axis. This layout evokes the grandeur of Piazza del Popolo in Rome, with its dramatic Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Basilica of Santa Maria in Montesanto—a masterpiece of Baroque urban design from the late 16th century, crafted to welcome pilgrims entering through the city's northern gate.

In Antwerp, however, this 19th-century design serves a different purpose: commercial development. Department stores and luxury shops now occupy the historical monuments along the city's central axis, blending heritage with modern commerce.

Walking along the Sint-Jacobmarkt, we arrive at the heart of the old city. The Cathedral of Our Lady, constructed from the mid-14th century, was intended to serve as the religious and spiritual center for the urban residents of that time. However, by the time the cathedral was completed in the 16th century, a new center had emerged to its northwest: the city hall, surrounded by guildhalls on the Grote Markt.

While the cathedral and its neighboring houses are built in the Gothic style, characterized by an intimate medieval spatial scale, the halls on the Town Square are in the Renaissance style, notable for their larger scale and richer ornamentation.

This dual-center urban plan is common in the Flemish region, with Bruges being a notable example. Its origins can be traced back to the Gothic cities of 13th- and 14th-century southern France, such as Revel and Mirande, where two centers were located in distinct parts of the city.

In Chinatown in The Hague, the Lunar New Year is celebrated with a procession featuring dragon and lion dances. It is not only for entertainment; it also carries cultural significance. 

The procession visits each shop along the street, bringing financial luck to the owners for the new year. The dragon signals the beginning of the performance and leads the God of Wealth to a shop where a lettuce is hung above the gate. In Chinese, the word for lettuce sounds similar to the word for "make money," making it a symbol of financial luck bestowed by the God of Wealth upon the shop owner. One of the four lions dances to the beat of the drums, leaps to catch the lettuce hanging high, crushes it into pieces, and presents it to the owner and audience. Some shop owners even prepare an altar with various offerings to the God. 

Meanwhile, the other three lions also dance happily to the music, shaking their heads and twinkling their big eyes at the audience. The audience stretches out their hands and touches the lions—a gesture believed to bring good luck for the new year. 

Walter Benjamin critiques the tension between capitalism and modernity through 19th-century Parisian arcades in Das Passagen-Werk. Yet, this spatial typology has a far older history.

Arcades trace back to the porticus of Ancient Rome—colonnades connecting buildings and framing urban squares. In 13th-century Bologna, they became integral to commercial buildings, reflecting a thriving urban culture. Their construction continued into the 20th century, and Bologna’s porticoes are now a UNESCO World Heritage site. As the city center, particularly Via dell’Indipendenza, underwent modernization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, arcades took on a rigid, uniform Neo-Classical style, reinforcing commodity fetishism.

By contrast, Padova’s medieval arcades remain diverse and vibrant. Piazza dei Frutti and Piazza delle Erbe, built around the 13th-century Palazzo della Ragione, still anchor daily market life. Constructed by merchants over different periods, they vary in materials, forms, and styles. Their human scale fosters a welcoming, intimate atmosphere, unlike the standardized arcades of modernity.

The evolution of urban culture is reflected in how arcades have changed across history.

Monasteries are built for monks, where they lead a religious life of contemplation. The Ex Convento di San Marco in Florence was designed by the renowned Renaissance architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo for the Dominican order in the 15th century. The cells on the upper floor of the cloister serve as the living spaces for the monks, each of whom occupies a cell of about 12 square meters. The room contains only a bed, a table, a chair, and a small altar, with a fresco by the painter Fra Angelico.

The word "cell" (Italian: cella) refers to a closed space and was historically the most sacred part of Ancient Roman temples, where holy icons or relics were kept. When transformed into monks' living quarters, the cells retained their sacredness and mystery by being constructed independently from the outer building structure—the walls and ceilings are entirely detached from the span and depth of the cloister.

The theme of the religious frescoes inside the cells further reinforces the multiple spatial layers; many of them depict scenes of caves from Gospel stories. The Holy of Holies is thus symbolically formed within the deep cave of an independent cell inside a cloister building.

Architecture is an integral art where spatial and pictorial elements fuse together.

France is well known for its medieval cathedrals and also brought Catholicism to its colonies. The former Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Casablanca and the still-functioning Cathedral of Our Lady of Victories in Dakar are two examples, both built in the 1920s and 1930s by French architects.

Each follows a typical Latin cross plan, features a west façade with twin towers, and adopts a modern design using reinforced concrete in pure white. However, the spatial experiences differ significantly due to the distinct expectations France projected onto these two former colonies.

The church in Casablanca follows a Gothic model in its abstract formal language. Its simple columns lead the visitor’s gaze directly to the altar, creating a sense of entering a medieval church—with several Moorish-inspired elements. For instance, it replaces European stained glass with traditional Moroccan-style mashrabiya screens on the windows.

In contrast, the Dakar cathedral adopts a more eclectic design. The central dome dominates the interior space, replacing the traditional long nave. The dome features a figurative fresco of The Virgin Mary in Glory with Christ, standing in stark contrast to the abstract geometric arches and the clean, straight lines of the walls.

The Casablanca church appears more modernist—with Art Deco influences interpreted through local forms—while the Dakar cathedral feels more classical, with minimal reference to Senegalese traditions.

Mosques and Catholic churches both feature continuous columns and arches along a longitudinal axis, but they usually differ in the orientation of their sacred axis. A mosque often has a transverse layout—the mihrab is located centrally on the qibla wall, which is typically the longer side facing Mecca. Worshippers stand side by side parallel to the rows of arches. In contrast, a church typically follows a longitudinal layout, where people move along the long nave in procession from one short side to the other.

In the transformation of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, the 14th-century Catholic architect creatively reused the existing grid of columns from the original mosque’s haram and inserted a longitudinal nave. This effectively rotated the direction of worship by ninety degrees. Nevertheless, the iconic double horseshoe arches remain a strong reminder of its Islamic origins.

By contrast, in the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, the king’s royal French architect applied a longitudinal plan to this monumental building. Despite its rich Islamic decoration, the spatial experience resembles that of a Catholic church, with arches leading the eye toward the “altar” (mihrab).

Architectural traditions are not merely about decorative styles; spatial arrangement plays a more fundamental role in defining religious architecture.