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ARCHITECTURE

Architecture (from Latin, architectura and ultimately from Greek, "a master builder", from "chief, leader" and "builder, carpenter") is the art and science of designing buildings and structures.

Architectural design usually must address both feasibility and cost for the builder, as well as function and aesthetics for the user. The role of the architect, though changing, has been central to the successful (and sometimes less than successful) design and implementation of pleasingly built environments in which people live.

In modern usage, architecture is the art and discipline of creating an actual, or inferring an implied or apparent plan of any complex object or system. The term can be used to connote the implied architecture of abstract things such as music or mathematics, the apparent architecture of natural things, such as geological formations or the structure of biological cells, or explicitly planned architectures of human-made things such as software, computers, enterprises, and databases, in addition to buildings. In every usage, an architecture may be seen as a subjective mapping from a human perspective (that of the user in the case of abstract or physical artifacts) to the elements or components of some kind of structure or system, which preserves the relationships among the elements or components.

Planned architecture often manipulates space, volume, texture, light, shadow, or abstract elements in order to achieve pleasing aesthetics.

Architecture is also the art of designing the built environment. Buildings, landscaping, and street designs may be used to impart both functional as well as aesthetic character to a project. Building features such as cornices, gables, entrances, window treatments and borders may be used to soften or enhance portions of a building. Landscaping may be used to create privacy and block direct views from or to a site and enhance buildings with colorful plants and trees. Street side features such as decorative lighting, benches, meandering walkways, and bicycle lanes may enhance a site for passersby, pedestrians, and cyclists.

With the Renaissance and its emphasis on the individual and humanity rather than religion, and with all its attendant progress and achievements, a new chapter began. Buildings were ascribed to specific architects - Michaelangelo, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci - and the cult of the individual had begun.

Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution laid open the door for mass consumption and aesthetics started becoming a criterion even for the middle class as ornamented products, once within the province of expensive craftsmanship, became cheaper under machine production.

When Modern architecture was first practiced, it was an avant-garde movement with moral, philosophical, and aesthetic underpinnings. Modernist Architects sought to "strip down" buildings to their pure form. It was during this shift that the phrase, "Less is more" was coined by Mies van der Rohe, one of the Fathers of the Modernist movement.

As many other concerns began to be recognized and complexity of buildings began to increase in terms of aspects such as services, architecture started becoming more multi-disciplinary than ever. Architecture now required a team of professionals in its making, an architect being one among the many, sometimes the leader, sometimes not. This is the state of the profession today. However, individuality is still cherished and sought for in the design of buildings seen as cultural symbols - the museum or fine arts center has become a showcase for new experiments in style: today one style, tomorrow maybe something else.

[Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]