Architectural & Garden

Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures. more...

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A wider definition often includes the design of the total built environment, from the macro level of how a building integrates with its surrounding manmade landscape (see town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture) to the micro level of architectural or construction details and, sometimes, furniture. The term \"Architecture\" is also used for the profession of providing architectural services.

Architects are primarily driven by the creative manipulation of mass, space, volume, texture, light, shadow, materials, program, and pragmatic elements such as cost, construction and technology, in order to achieve an end which is aesthetic, functional and often artistic. This distinguishes architecture from engineering design, which is driven primarily by the creative manipulation of materials and forms using mathematical and scientific principles.

Separate from the design process, architecture is also experienced through the senses, which therefore gives rise to aural , visual, olfactory , and tactile architecture. As people move through a space, architecture is experienced as a time sequence. Even though our culture considers architecture to be a visual experience, the other senses play a role in how we experience both natural and built environments. Attitudes towards the senses depend on culture . The design process and the sensory experience of a space are distinctly separate views, each with its own language and assumptions.

Architectural works are perceived as cultural and political symbols and works of art. Historical civilizations are often known primarily through their architectural achievements. Such buildings as the pyramids of Egypt and the Roman Colosseum are cultural symbols, and are an important link in public consciousness, even when scholars have discovered much about a past civilization through other means. Cities, regions and cultures continue to identify themselves with (and are known by) their architectural monuments.

Etymology and application of the term

The word \"architecture\" comes from the Latin, \"architectura\" and ultimately from Greek,\"arkhitekton\", αρχιτεκτων, an architect, or more precisely \"master builder\", from the combination of αρχι a \"chief\" or \"leader\" and τεκτων, a \"builder\" or \"carpenter.\"

Read more at Wikipedia.org