ABSTRACT
Stylistic expression in both architecture and urban design can be shown to be directly related to cultural preference. Typically, the design criteria of urban social space should meet the cultural needs of communities in different ways. In the post-millennium era, the amenity value of the social environment will decline unless the cultural preferences of the end-user are satisfied. Cultural proclivity, or natural inclination, a behavioural phenomenon that spreads from person to person within a culture, became the focus of a field of study called 'memetics' which arose in the 1990s. Cultural landscapes are no longer confined to the exclusive use of local communities. In the urban environment, for example, the failure to meet the cultural needs of the community, the end user, threatens the amenity value of the social environment with potentially significant sociological consequences. Cultural expectations are a well-researched field and most evidence points to them being cross-cultural and universally unvarying.
