Architecture - Architectural history

Architecture (classical Greek: αρχή, 'start', τέχνη, 'craftsmanship') is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. A wider definition would include within its scope the design of the total built environment, from the macrolevel of town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to the microlevel of creating furniture. Architectural design usually must address both feasibility and cost for the ...

Including:

• Architecture - Scope and intentions
• Architecture - Architecture and buildings
• Architecture - Architectural history

Read more here: » Architecture: Encyclopedia - Architecture

Architecture first evolved out of the dynamics between needs (shelter, security, worship, etc.) and means (available building materials and attendant skills). Prehistoric and primitive architecture constitute this early stage. As humans progressed and knowledge began to be formalised through oral traditions and practices, architecture evolved into a craft. Here there is first a process of trial and error, and later improvisation or replicati ...

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Architecture, Architecture - Scope and intentions, Architecture - Architecture and buildings, Architecture - Architectural history

Read more here: » Architecture: Encyclopedia II - Architecture - Architectural history

According to the very earliest surviving work on the subject, Vitruvius' De architectura, good buildings satisfy three core principles: Firmness, Commodity, and Delight[1]; architecture can be said to be a balance and coordination among these three elements, with none overpowering the others. A modern day definition sees architecture as addressing aesthetic, structural and functional considerations. However, looked at another way, function itself is seen as encompassing all ...

See also:

Architecture, Architecture - Scope and intentions, Architecture - Architecture and buildings, Architecture - Architectural history

Read more here: » Architecture: Encyclopedia II - Architecture - Scope and intentions

The difference between architecture and building is a subject matter that has engaged the attention of many. According to Nikolaus Pevsner, European historian of the early twentieth century, "A bicycle shed is a building, Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture". In current thinking, the division is not too clear. Bernard Rudofsky's famous Architecture Without Architects consolidated a whole range of structures ...

See also:

Architecture, Architecture - Scope and intentions, Architecture - Architecture and buildings, Architecture - Architectural history

Read more here: » Architecture: Encyclopedia II - Architecture - Architecture and buildings