An architecture may be called into being by all sorts of external conditions, but once it appears it constitutes an organism in itself, with its own character and its own continuing life. Its value cannot be stated in the sociological or economic terms by which we explain its origin, and its influence may continue after its original environment has altered or disappeared. Architecture can reach out beyond the period of its birth, beyond the social class that called it into being, beyond the style to which it belongs.

Space, Time and Architecture
by S. Giedion