The first aim of this report is measurement and the second is comparison. It highlights what each of the five cities in our study have in common, and how they differ. The resulting focus on the city as a locus of cultural activities responds to a growing recognition of the role of place in culture, an old idea that has come full circle. Roman civilisation gave us the idea of a ‘genius loci’, the spirit of a place, which has come to mean its ‘distinctive atmosphere’, a guiding principle of architectural design. Under the influence of the Romantics, culture came to.
