Why is a building memorable long after the paint dries?

All buildings have their own stories and they hold those of the people who built them, lived there or used them

- Ask Ash Ash Müller

Everyone remembers the corridors of their school and the distinct smell of specific classrooms. If you've ever been divorced, I am certain you will never forget those cold courtroom walls as you went in to finalise the legal process. It's hard to forget the home where your baby took her very first steps. And one cannot possibly erase the feeling of time spent within hospital walls, where the happiest of hellos and hardest of goodbyes intertwine.

Buildings shape us and live inside us as the years go by.

Cities with their people and properties evolve through human stories.

South Africa, with its rich layers, contradictions, and painfully beautiful potential, is bursting with spaces that people have emotionally connected with for centuries.

As I stood inside a heritage building last week at a property launch, I was reminded of just how many of Cape Town's buildings are not just structures but characters in the city's ever-evolving plot. I looked at the 120-year-old solid, bulky wooden beams above me and admired the original sun-dried brick walls — almost two centuries of history right at my very feet.

And now, this building will receive a new lease on life as she enters her new chapter. She will become a modern apartment block. The developer will combine the old with the new, transforming this heritage building into something inspiring. They will incorporate modern, contemporary design, all the while maintaining the extraordinary facade with its vintage architectural charm.

Have you ever sat and thought about the buildings in our cities and how they came to be?

Let's take those three tall towers (known affectionately by Capetonians as the Tampon Towers) perched awkwardly at the base of the Mother City's iconic Table Mountain. I have tweeted a lot about these pepper pots, and the general consensus is that people either really love or really hate the towers.