More rationale for using narratives, thought experiments..

Space & Imagination 

(Juhani Pallasma, Architectural Atmospheres, previously mentioned, pp27-32)

When we read a novel, we are constantly creating the settings and situations in our imagination merely at the suggestion of the author's words. We move effortlessly from one scene to the next as though these settings existed before we sat down to read. We experience these imaginary spaces in full spatiality and atmosphere, not as pictures. Entirely products of our imagination.
What is amazing about this is the completeness of this - as we read a novel, we create cities and landscapes as well as the buildings, the rooms and their ambience all without knowing the details. The totality dominates the detail.

Pallasmaa suggests that we seek historically dense settings because they connect us imaginatively with past life and it makes us feel safe and enriched to be part of that temporal continuum - traces of life support images of safety and continued life.

Experiencing, memorising and imagining spaces engages our imagination. Memories feel similar to actual experience.