26

Two situations « made space » in Ancient Greece: the temple and the agora. The former was rooted in the presence of a sovereign building that stood in isolated splendour, the latter was based in the affirmation of a framed space. The wager of Western cities since the Classical age has been to bring the two diametrically opposed situations together. Urban space has become the stage playing out the tension between architectural reason and the reason for urban planning. The power struggle, which has varied from one civilisation to another, has invariably left its mark on the urban fabric, which in turn shapes our ways of thinking and acting. The spaces of the city we have inherited and those designed today represent a certain idea of order. They have much to say about what matters, who is in charge, and how we live.