ABSTRACT
Obviously, some of our actions resulting from - or taken on the occasion of – our contact with buildings aim at those buildings either as objects in themselves, or as substitutes for other things, persons or groups, or institutions. We should probably discern among vandalism and targeted destruction and annihilation of the works of “others”, and discern among three major motives for the latter: ideological and political motives, which are often linked to attempts to rewrite history or to demonstrating the strength of the new overlord. Typical for these kinds of motives are those that most probably guided the destruction of ancient temples by Christian mobs; psychological motives, which can be divided into “aggressive” and “defensive”, the former manifested through the demonstration of destruction as such, the latter linked to the desire to be freed from the burden of choices made by others; and practical motives, which are primarily related to the appropriation of the spot where the targeted buildings stand and are closely linked to the “defensive” psychological motives of destruction.
