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

A wider definition would include within its scope also 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 builder, as well as function and aesthetics for the user.

Architecture often involves the manipulation of space, volume, texture, light, shadow, and abstract elements in order to achieve an aesethetic end. This distinguishes it from applied science or engineering, which usually concentrate more on the functional and feasibility aspects of a design, rather than its aesthetics.

Architects must have the skills to design a large scope of projects, from a stadium to a residential house. Many architectural works are also seen as cultural and political symbols, or works of art. The role of the architect, though changing, has been central to the design and implementation of the environments in which people live.

Table of architecture, Cyclopaedia, 1728Historical civilizations are often known primarily through their architectural achievements. The Egyptian pyramids and the Roman Colloseum are cultural symbols, and are an important link in public consciousness, even when scholars have discovered much about a past civilization through other means.

Le Corbusier said: "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.