I don't think there's a direct link between architectural style and niceness, though. Tentative hypothesis is that it's basically the perceived density of public-oriented activity that makes places feel welcome. Normal shops, coffee shops, pubs, markets etc feel positive. Traffic, car parks, big blank walls, empty foyers of offices and housing developments tend to feel like the city telling the individual pedestrian to piss off. And swinging back around, I think that's the stuff that feels more Ballardian, too - it might be raw brutalism or it might have all the trappings of superficial attractiveness but at its heart it's anti-human.