Reading Time: < 1 minute In Asia, traditional buildings — even royal palaces or important Buddhist temples — don’t attract your attention the way that Il Duomo in Florence or the Notre Dame of Paris do, standing majestic and tall, poking the sky.
They blend into the background, aiming to harmonize with the surrounding mountain or sea, rather than overwhelm it.
What is more, they are built with the expectation that they will decay and return to dust. So you see a lot of wood, which twists and falls apart in time. The paint fades with rain and time.
