Noun

architecture (countable and uncountable; plural architectures)

1. The art and science of designing buildings and other structures.

   The architecture throughout NYC is amazing.

2. The profession of an architect.
3. Any particular style of building design.
4. A unifying structure.
5. (computing) A specific model of a microchip or CPU.

   The Intel architectures have more software written for them.

6. The structure and design of a system or product.

   The architecture of the company's billing system is designed to support its business goals.

Related terms

• architectonic

A wider definition may comprise all design activity, from the macro-level (urban design, landscape architecture) to the micro-level (construction details and furniture). Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. It requires the creative manipulation and coordination of material, technology, light and shadow. Architecture also encompasses the pragmatic aspects of realising buildings and structures, including scheduling, cost estimating and construction administration. As documentation produced by architects, typically drawings, plans and technical specifications, architecture defines the structure and/or behavior of a building or any other kind of system that is to be or has been constructed.

Architectural works are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.

Architecture sometimes refers to the activity of designing any kind of system and the term is common in the information technology world.

The architect

Architects plan, design and review the construction of buildings and structures for the use of people. Architects also coordinate and integrate engineering design, which has as its primary objective the creative manipulation of materials and forms using mathematical and scientific principles.

Architecture

Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and structures.

Contents

• 1 Sourced
• 2 Unsourced
• 3 See also
• 4 External links

Sourced

• Dancing and architecture are the two primary and essential arts. The art of dancing stands at the source of all the arts that express themselves first in the human person. The art of building, or architecture, is the beginning of all the arts that lie outside the person; and in the end they unite.
  • Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life (1923)

• Architects know that some kinds of design problems are more personal than others. One of the cleanest, most abstract design problems is designing bridges. There your job is largely a matter of spanning a given distance with the least material. The other end of the spectrum is designing chairs. Chair designers have to spend their time thinking about human butts.
  • Paul Graham, "Five Questions About Language Design" (May 2001)

• A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality
  • Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1867)

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Sat Sep 4 03:54:54 2010