Architect Daniel Libeskind is CNN Style's first guest editor. He's commissioning a series of features that explore the theme of "Architecture and Emotion," to be published throughout July. Here, he explains some of the thoughts behind his chosen subject.

New York (CNN)Many people don't see architecture as important, even very smart people. They leave it to somebody else.

But to me, there's nothing more important than architecture. It creates your world and influences how you feel both mentally and spiritually.

So, if you live in a horrible place, you'll be impaired mentally. Let's say you live in a dark environment with no windows and with nothing but a blank wall behind you. You'd be in a prison, and that would have a detrimental impact on your mental health.

The most neutral architecture is often the most aggressive. But in buildings that move us, there's an element of care. It's not a question of whether a building makes us feel good or bad. It's about being moved. That's what the word emotion means. What we feel is the sense of intensity, passion and involvement. It's something that goes very deep.

Look at a Frank Gehry building, for instance, and you can see the love and care and infinite labor it took to bend that piece of steel. You can see it in high-tech architecture like that of Norman Foster, the love for an incredible suspended piece of glass and how difficult it is to make a piece of glass look like it's floating. It's also why people love going to old medieval towns or beautiful villages -- because they inspire us to feel moved.

In great cities, the great buildings tell you things you don't know and remember things which you've forgotten. It's a collective wisdom, an engine superior to your own intelligence. Architecture is the biggest unwritten document of history.

We are certainly writing a new chapter today. Places that were just caravans in the desert are suddenly high-density cities with incredible buildings. Cities that were neglected are now competing with other major cities: Shanghai vs. Beijing, Beijing vs Frankfurt, Frankfurt vs. New York. Nobody could have predicted 50 years ago that it would be cities competing with each other rather than nations.

And it's important for a city to have incredible variety. I don't like oppressive cities that offer no relief. We see this in authoritarian attempts at controlling architecture, whether it was enlightenment thinkers or Stalin or Hitler or Mussolini. They tried to rebuild the world in their image, and their idea of playing God failed because of our irrepressible individuality.

I often wish the city was more creative, that the sidewalk was a more fantastic experience, because life is short and you don't want to walk through a dull-witted place. The great cities we really admire have this perplexing variety of thoughts, forms, colors, dialects, spiritual ideas.

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