Miranda is right 15:12 Sep 11, 2013
and there is a kind of ambiguity inherent in the term. But, as Gilla says, it is rather well known, at least in certain circles.
As a medieval Art Historian, I have seen it applied to all sorts of media --sculpture and painting perhaps more often than architecture, since the latter is, by its nature, so "conservative." The concept frequently merges with that of a local or regional "style," which so often "defines" what figures look like at any given place. Most interesting to me has always been the examples of works which are clearly by a master who worked at two different places (to judge by the style), but whose work is quite distinctly "influenced" by *something* which changes it in significant ways.
For example, there is an early 13th c. sculptor who worked on the north transept of Chartres and then, later, on the west facade of Reims. Details demonstrate it is the same guy, but his work at Reims is much more "massive" than that at Chartres --and this "massiveness" can be traced back well into the 12th c. in sculpture from Reims.
The existence of a "Genius Loci" is about the best explanation I can come up with for this phenomenon. | 
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