"First we shape things, then they shape us," Winston Churchill knew. What are truly formative architectures? Who do they shape? And how do they shape? The author provides the following surprising answer to these questions: through proximity to war or stress. After a tour d'horizon through Roman temple buildings, the corridors of power in Washington, and the anti-panic architectures of Mecca, it becomes clear: architecture is anything but a backdrop. It stands at the very center of the dynamics of transmission and has the power to change cultures, empires, and even religions.