God I wish there were more books on buildings as a narrative in ragards to fantasy. we inherantly gleen information about a person or group of people by the things and environment they're surrounded themselves in. Any given building can tell you the circumstances in which it was built, the climate, the culture and what the people thought was significant at the time. this applies to both real life buildings and fiction.
The oil rig type structures of Kamino city in star wars tell us that the people believe themselves above nature as they balance above the entirely water planet they rest on. Winterfell (from the show) shows us that the people keep to themseflves with the castle built as tight as they could possiby could.
We do this subconciously all the time, when imaninging someone egotistical with a lot of power who only cares for themselves, where would they live what would that look like?, a large castle perhaps?, or a palace, sprawling in gold? what about someone kind and good with a heart of gold? a cottage? or another small but cozy structure?
You can learn to read buidings like a book sure, its relatively easy, my partner could tell you the significance in a lintel being a foot bigger than others, the evidence is there. So you can also learn to write buildings like one also, you build a cathedral to show your devotion and attention to detail infront of your god, a fortress to show strength and many more.
I want to get my teeth into the connection between fiction and life in terms of how we build, we've lost our sense of whimsey when it comes to architecture, why?????? We should be thinking what we want to say to the person who looks at our building in 200 years, I know exactly what the Sistine Chapel is saying to me. What the hell is the architect of the Trinity shopping centre in Aberdeen trying to tell me, fuck you trinity centre you know what you did.