I.

Definition of
Architecture

DEFINITIONS OF ARCHITECTURE:
O The word Architecture comes from the Latin, architectura and
ultimately from Greek, arkitekton, an architect, or more precisely master
builder, from the combination of chief or leader and a builder or
carpenter.
("Architecture" can mean:
O A general term to describe buildings and other physical structures.
O The art and science of designing buildings and (some) non building
structures.
O The style of design and method of construction of buildings and other
physical structures.
O The practice of the architect, where architecture means offering or
rendering professional services in connection with the design and
construction of buildings, or built environments.
O The design activity of the architect, from the macro-level (urban design,
landscape architecture) to the micro-level (construction details and
furniture).
O Architecture has to do with planning, designing and constructing form,
space and ambience to reflect functional, technical, social, environmental
and aesthetic considerations. It requires the creative manipulation and
coordination of materials and technology, and of light and shadow. Often,
conflicting requirements must be resolved. Architecture also
encompasses the pragmatic aspects of realizing buildings and structures,
including scheduling, cost estimation and construction administration.
Documentation produced by architects, typically drawings, plans and
technical specifications, defines the structure and/or behavior of a building
or other kind of system that is to be or has been constructed.
While the primary application of the word
Architecture pertains to the built environment, by
extension, the term has come to denote 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 structure of
biological cells, or explicitly planned architectures of
human-made things such as software, computers,
enterprises, and databases,in addition to buildings.
II. The Role of an Architect
The Role of an Architect
O What Do Architects Do?
You have a vision of what you want. Now you need to
make that vision a reality. Here's how an architect
can help you:
O Architects see the big picture.
O Architects are specially educated to help you define
what you want to build, present options you might
never have considered, and help you get the most
for your valuable investment. They don't just design
four walls and a roof -- they create total
environments, both interiors and exteriors, that are
functional and exciting places in which to work and
live.

O Architects solve problems creatively. Architects are
trained problem solvers. Need more room for your
growing family? Architects can show you how to
enlarge your home so you won't have to move. Have
a limited budget? Architects can propose ways to get
more for your investment than you imagined
possible.
O Architects can reduce building costs, decrease your
home's energy needs, and increase its future resale
value through good design.
O Architects make your life easier.
O Building is a long process that is often messy and
disruptive, particularly if you're living in the space
while it's under construction. Your architect
represents you, not the contractors. Your architect
looks out for your interests and smoothes the
process, helps find qualified construction
contractors, and visits the worksite to help protect
you against work that's not according to plan.

The Architect is to be
concerned with the
following :
OConstruction
OArticulation
OAesthetics
III. Theory of an Architecture
The earliest surviving written work on the subject of
architecture is De architectura, by the Roman
architect Vitruvius in the early 1st century AD.

According
to Vitruvius, a good building should satisfy the three
principles of firmitas, utilitas, venustas,commonly known
by the original translation firmness, commodity and
delight. An equivalent in modern English would be:
O Durability a building should stand up robustly and
remain in good condition.
O Utility it should be suitable for the purposes for which
is it used.
O Beauty it should be aesthetically pleasing.
.

O According to Vitruvius, the architect should strive
to fulfill each of these three attributes as well as
possible. Leone Battista Alberti, who elaborates on
the ideas of Vitruvius in his treatise, De Re
Aedificatoria, saw beauty primarily as a matter of
proportion, although ornament also played a part.
For Alberti, the rules of proportion were those that
governed the idealised human figure, the Golden
mean. The most important aspect of beauty was
therefore an inherent part of an object, rather than
something applied superficially; and was based on
universal, recognisable truths. The notion of style
in the arts was not developed until the 16th
century, with the writing of Vasari: by the 18th
century, his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters,
Sculptors, and Architects had been translated into
Italian, French, Spanish and English
O In the early 19th century, Augustus Welby Northmore
Pugin wrote Contrasts (1836) that, as the titled suggested,
contrasted the modern, industrial world, which he disparaged, with
an idealized image of neo-medieval world. Gothic architecture,
Pugin believed, was the only "true Christian form of architecture."
O The 19th-century English art critic, John Ruskin, in his Seven
Lamps of Architecture, published 1849, was much narrower in his
view of what constituted architecture. Architecture was the "art
which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by men ... that the
sight of them" contributes "to his mental health, power, and
pleasure".
[10]

O For Ruskin, the aesthetic was of overriding significance. His work
goes on to state that a building is not truly a work of architecture
unless it is in some way "adorned". For Ruskin, a well-constructed,
well-proportioned, functional building needed
string courses or rustication, at the very least.
[10]

O On the difference between the ideals of architecture and
mere construction, the renowned 20th-century architect Le
Corbusier wrote: "You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with
these materials you build houses and palaces: that is construction.
Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me
good. I am happy and I say: This is beautiful. That is
Architecture".
[11]

O Le Corbusier's contemporary Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said
"Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together.
There it begins."
[12]