Architecture, Architecture

A wider definition often includes the design of the total built environment, from the macro level of how a building integrates with its surrounding context (see town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture) to the micro level of architectural or construction details and, sometimes, furniture and hardware. Wider still, architecture is the activity of designing any kind of system.

Rasmussen Experiencing Architecture MIT Press through the senses, which therefore gives rise to aural, B. Blesser and L. Salter Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture MIT Press 2007. online [1] visual, olfactory, A. Barbara and A. Perliss Invisible Architecture: Experiencing Places Through the Sense of Smell Skira, 2006 and tactile J. Pallasmaa The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses architecture. As people move through a space, architecture is experienced as a time sequence.

This distinguishes architecture from engineering design, which has as its primary object the creative manipulation of materials and forms using mathematical and scientific principles.

What is termed Vernacular architecture continues to be produced in many parts of the world. Indeed, vernacular buildings make up most of the built world that people experience every day. , Cambodia. Early human settlements were mostly rural. Due to a surplus in production the economy began to expand resulting in urbanization thus creating urban areas which grew and evolved very rapidly in some cases, such as that of atal Huyuk in Anatolia and Mohenjo Daro in Pakistan. In many ancient civilizations, like the Egyptians' and Mesopotamians', architecture and urbanism reflected the constant engagement with the divine and the supernatural, while in other ancient cultures such as Persia architecture and urban planning was used to exemplify the power of the state.

Sustainability in architecture was pioneered in the 1970s by architects such as Ian McHarg in the US and Brenda and Robert Vale in the UK and New Zealand. There has been an acceleration in the number of buildings which seek to meet green building sustainable design principles. It is now expected that architects will integrate sustainable principles into their projects. The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system has been instrumental in this. Other energy efficiency and green building rating systems include Energy Star, Green Globes, and CHPS (Collaborative for High Performance Schools),LEED.

Source: Wikipedia > Architecture