Due to the potential for creating immersive spaces in which the “function” of attracting and retaining attention replaces traditional calculations of climatic conditions, safety, gravity, etc., there is a need for terms for broader generalisation and evaluation. The purpose was to argue the expediency of using the term “perfect presence space”, as one that can collectively determine the value level of various design attempts to spatially express media and communicative realities, including comparing them with the experience of traditional architectural styles. The main method is a comparative analysis of specially selected architectural phenomena. On the basis of a brief historical retrospective, the tendency to gradually replace the functionalist “rational” substantiation of elements of space (associated with everyday life) with the attraction “irrational” (associated with non-ordinary life) is shown; the presence of experience in the materialisation of non-ordinary states in the architecture of different eras and purposes. Further, a review of several content frameworks that led architectural design to the interpretation of an exceptional or perfect presence is carried out, such as urban-social utopias of “ideal cities”, objects of religious pilgrimages and narrative stories, places of exceptional aesthetic qualities of the natural environment outlined by “paradise” metaphors, and representative and solemn squares of capital cities. The potential of the term “perfect presence space” is shown, which allows effectively operating with the motivational foundations of creating a modern space, which are based on attracting and retaining attention and stay; it provides a conceptual basis for evaluating offers of visual and spatial stay (non-virtual and virtual). The assumption is made about the mechanism of “idealisation” of presence, which is developed through the interaction of three components: person – attention – stay. The practical significance of the study is the opportunity, based on succinct, meaningfully clear and universal terms, to facilitate the perception of the architectural environment and improve the involvement of a wider range of stakeholders and participation groups in the study of design
