We can survive without architecture, if we're willing to live in the finest that the Soviet Union has to offer.
Actually that brings up a memory from college. For some class I was taking, student groups put on skits at the end of the semester about a topic of their choice from what we'd covered over the last four months, and one group did a panel discussion of three students from engineering, sciences, and architecture giving input on the design of new dorms. It was an absolute straw-man festival, with the 'engineering' student eagerly describing the efficiency of packing everyone into tight rows of windowless utilitarian cubes, while the 'architecture' student envisioned lavish lounges, stylish accenting and paint jobs, panoramic views, etc. Oh, and the 'science' student observed that private bathrooms would be healthier than communal. Really, that was his one line in the skit. Punch line, it was obviously three architecture majors taking the piss out of everyone else. But hey, it's a funny story I still remember almost forty years later.
I'm afraid my own visual imagination is quite poor. I can't draw to save my life. I have moderate facial blindness. But for all that, I recognize things I enjoy. I love Art Deco architecture. If I ever go to New York City, I'm certainly braving the long lines with all the other tourists to go up the Empire State Building, and I knew it's of that style, even if I can't define it.
I love the buildings of central Europe. I lived in Germany for a while years ago, and while the cement walls made picture-hanging a pain, I love the style of most buildings there. Caveat, I lived outside Munich, so it may be different outside Bavaria in parts of the country I didn't get to much. But I enjoyed Austrian, Czech, Swiss, Dutch, etc. I do like Mediterranean, but my preference is north of the Alps over south. But then there's the Scottish style. Glasgow looks as drab as anything in America. Sorrow, but I attended a conference there once, and it did not impress.
If I knew how to identify anything, I'd probably be better able to say what I'm seeing. Like, growing up and later when visiting home, I noticed things like how houses in upstate New York look different than houses in Vermont. My wife observed that one favored craftsman style and the other colonial style. To me, they just look different. Region to region, country to country, it's kind of fascinating how precise, measurable detail can remain so invisible if you don't know what you're looking at. Like, a city block in Canada looks different than one in the US, even if it's just mundane commercial or residential. And though I've never been there, an urban or suburban snapshot in Japan looks Japanese, even if there aren't any Shinto temples or torii gates in the shot. Probably the difference in all three is something like sidewalk size or setbacks from the street, clear enough when you know what you're seeing but there in the subconscious otherwise.
Where would I live? All else equal, I'd live in a house embedded in the outer wall of a modern Medieval walled city, open on one side to thriving market conveniences and on the other side to virgin forests with nicely groomed trails. I'm not holding my breath waiting for this.
