OUR series on the Joy of Sussex has taken in the natural beauty of the South Downs and the murmurations of starlings, it has touched on the pleasure of watching the cricket and swimming in the sea, and it has reminded us of the fun of the music, the artists and the eccentrics who call our county home.

But from Tokyo’s high-rises and Oxford’s dreaming spires, to the gentle terracotta of a Tuscan village, perhaps nothing so defines a place as its architecture.

That is certainly true of Sussex.

In Brighton, traditional Regency splendour and Victorian Italiante are punctuated by startling one-off structures which almost defy definition, from the Pavilion to the Pier to the i360.

Perhaps that’s right; after all Brighton and Hove has a respectable side which vies with individualism.

Sussex is home to some of the finest examples of Modernist buildings in the UK from the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill to the Chichester Festival Theatre to Falmer House at the University of Sussex - are dotted amongst timber pubs in well-preserved market towns.

Brighton alone plays host to over 3,500 listed structures and the city’s gems never fail to impress residents and visitors alike.

Its most startling building owes little to the traditions which surround it.

The Pavilion’s style, defined as Indo-Saracen with its domes, minarets and Islamic-inspired plasterwork owes more to nineteenth century India than the genteel Regency stucco of Embassy Court or Royal Crescent.

But perhaps that is why it is so inimitably right in Brighton - it is fashion-forward and individualistic, just like so many of the town’s residents.

The same like-it-or-loathe-it self-confidence could also be ascribed to the city’s newest architectural headline, the i360 tower.

Roger Amerena, of the Brighton and Hove heritage commission, said: “The seafront is probably the most spectacular of all seafronts in the UK, with late Regency and early Victorian buildings, and that formed the backdrop to a very impressive promenade.

“The architecture evokes a town which nestles beneath the downs and by the sea, built and developed largely for entertainment.

“Brighton wasn’t planned but as you arrive it announces itself, whether under the aquaduct by the Level from the North, by the Marina to the East or Hove Lawns to the West.

“We’ve got three grand entrances to something which is not too disappointing in the middle.”