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What Is Architecture

Architecture serves both practical and aesthetic purposes by fulfilling functional requirements while also communicating ideas through form. The key characteristics that distinguish architecture from other structures are its suitability for human use and activities, stable construction, and ability to convey experiences. The types of architecture that exist, such as domestic, religious, governmental, etc., are determined by the needs of society and the roles or institutions within it. Architectural form is influenced by technologies but remains conservative, building on preindustrial traditions to meet basic needs of shelter, security, and environmental protection.

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71 views6 pages

What Is Architecture

Architecture serves both practical and aesthetic purposes by fulfilling functional requirements while also communicating ideas through form. The key characteristics that distinguish architecture from other structures are its suitability for human use and activities, stable construction, and ability to convey experiences. The types of architecture that exist, such as domestic, religious, governmental, etc., are determined by the needs of society and the roles or institutions within it. Architectural form is influenced by technologies but remains conservative, building on preindustrial traditions to meet basic needs of shelter, security, and environmental protection.

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Hoàng Yến
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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What is architecture?

Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as


distinguished from the skills associated with construction. The practice
of architecture is employed to fulfill both practical and expressive
requirements, and thus it serves both utilitarian and aesthetic ends.
Although these two ends may be distinguished, they cannot be
separated, and the relative weight given to each can vary widely.
Because every society—whether highly developed or less so, settled or
nomadic—has a spatial relationship to the natural world and to other
societies, the structures they produce reveal much about their
environment (including climate and weather), history, ceremonies, and
artistic sensibility, as well as many aspects of daily life.
Architecture: characteristics
The characteristics that distinguish a work of architecture from other man-
made structures are (1) the suitability of the work to use by human beings in
general and the adaptability of it to particular human activities, (2) the
stability and permanence of the work's construction, and (3) the
communication of experience and ideas through its form. All these
conditions must be met in architecture. The second is a constant, while the
first and third vary in relative importance according to the social function of
buildings. If the function is chiefly utilitarian, as in a factory, communication
is of less importance. If the function is chiefly expressive, as in a monumental
tomb, utility is a minor concern. In some buildings, such as churches and city
halls, utility and communication may be of equal importance.
The types of architecture are established not by architects but by
society, according to the needs of its different institutions. Society sets
the goals and assigns to the architect the job of finding the means of
achieving them.
Architectural types

Architecture is created only to fulfill the specifications of an individual


or group. Economic law prevents architects from emulating their fellow
artists in producing works for which the demand is nonexistent or only
potential. So the types of architecture depend upon social formations
and may be classified according to the role of the patron in the
community. The types that will be discussed here—domestic, religious,
governmental, recreational, welfare and educational, and commercial
and industrial—represent the simplest classification; a scientific
typology of architecture would require a more detailed analysis.
• Architecture (building), the practice of building design and its resulting products;
customary usage refers only to those designs and structures that are culturally
significant. Architecture is to building as literature is to the printed word. Vitruvius,
a 1st-century BC Roman, wrote encyclopedically about architecture, and the
English poet Sir Henry Wotton was quoting him in his charmingly phrased dictum:
“Well building hath three conditions: Commoditie, Firmenes, and Delight.” More
prosaically, one would say today that architecture must satisfy its intended uses,
must be technically sound, and must convey aesthetic meaning. But the best
buildings are often so well constructed that they outlast their original use. They
then survive not only as beautiful objects, but as documents of the history of
cultures, achievements in architecture that testify to the nature of the society that
produced them. These achievements are never wholly the work of individuals.
Architecture is a social art.
Architectural form is inevitably influenced by the technologies applied,
but building technology is conservative and knowledge about it is
cumulative. Precast concrete, for instance, has not rendered brick
obsolete. Although design and construction have become highly
sophisticated and are often computer directed, this complex apparatus
rests on preindustrial traditions inherited from millennia during which
most structures were lived in by the people who erected them. The
technical demands on building remain the elemental ones—to exclude
enemies, to circumvent gravity, and to avoid discomforts caused by an
excess of heat or cold or by the intrusion of rain, wind, or vermin. This
is no trivial assignment even with the best modern technology.

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