ar·chi·tec·ture (är k -t k ch r)n. 1. The art and science of designing and erecting buildings. 2. Buildings and other large structures: the low, brick-and-adobe architecture of the Southwest. 3. A style and method of design and construction: Byzantine architecture. 4. Orderly arrangement of parts; structure: the architecture of the federal bureaucracy; the architecture of a novel. 5. Computer Science The overall design or structure of a computer system, including the hardware and the software required to run it, especially the internal structure of the microprocessor. [Latin architect  ra, from architectus, architect; see architect.]ar chi·tectur·al adj.ar chi·tectur·al·ly adv. |
architecture [ˈɑːkɪˌtɛktʃə]
n
1. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Architecture) the art and science of designing and superintending the erection of buildings and similar structures
2. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Architecture) a style of building or structure Gothic architecture
3. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Architecture) buildings or structures collectively
4. the structure or design of anything the architecture of the universe
5. (Electronics & Computer Science / Computer Science) the internal organization of a computer's components with particular reference to the way in which data is transmitted
6. (Electronics & Computer Science / Computer Science) the arrangement of the various devices in a complete computer system or network
architectural adj
architecturally adv
Architecture
a citadel or elevated fortification of a settlement.
the science of architecture. See also art; philosophy. — architectonic, architectonical, adj.
a style of architecture distinguished by excessive ornamentation or floridity. — Asiatical, adj.
a highly decorated form of art or ornamentation. — baroque, adj.
an aggressive 20th-century style, usually in rough-textured and unfinished materials, that frankly exhibits both structural and mechanical systems.
a 20th-century style dwelling, usually of one story, imitative of the true bungalow form characterized by low, sweeping roof gables and a large verandah in the front.
1. the employment of compositional formulas and decorative techniques based upon the architecture of ancient Greece or Rome, but often including new ideas.
2. the employment of formulas and decorative techniques with an emphasis upon the subordination of utility in order to stress perfection of form.
2. the employment of formulas and decorative techniques with an emphasis upon the subordination of utility in order to stress perfection of form.
1. the use of columns in architectural design.
2. the pattern of columns used.
2. the pattern of columns used.
a form of ornamentation composed of cusps or curves meeting in pairs at a tangent to the area being decorated. — cuspidate, cuspidal, adj.
an international movement, most in vogue from 1820 until about 1930, characterized by almost total freedom of choice among historical styles of both overall composition and decoration in the design of public buildings, the freedom tempered by the intended use or location of the building.
a style imitative of antique Egyptian temple architecture, most influential after Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt and lasting in the U.S. into the early 20th century.
the slight convexity or outward curve given to a tower or other tall, narrow structure.
harmonious proportions in a building.
an American style based upon the classical theories and decorations of the English architect Robert Adams and his contemporaries, with lightness and delicacy as its outstanding qualities; practiced from 1775 until overwhelmed by Greek Revivalism, its most typical external features are doorways with fanlights and sidelights (often with attenuated pilasters) and the play of other curved elements against a basically boxlike structure. Also called Early Federal Style, Early Republican.
a philosophy of architectural design rather than a separate style, expressed in Louis Sullivan’s “form follows function” and Le Corbu-sier’s concept of a house as a machine for living in, under the premise that buildings ought to express construction, materials, and accommodation of purpose, usually with the assumption that the result would be aesthetically significant. Also called structuralism. — functionalist, n., adj.
1. in England, the modes of architecture, furniture, decoration, and silver produced from about 1714 to 1830; architecturally, it embraced several styles: Palladian, Early Gothic Revival, Chinese, and various other classical and romantic manners.
2. in America, the architectural style of the English colonies during the 18th century, based first upon the ideas of Christopher Wren and James Gibbs and later upon the Palladian style. It is typically characterized by construction in red brick with white or colored trim and double-hung windows, central halls, elaborately turned stair balusters, paneled and warmly colored walls, fine woodwork, and white plastered ceilings.
2. in America, the architectural style of the English colonies during the 18th century, based first upon the ideas of Christopher Wren and James Gibbs and later upon the Palladian style. It is typically characterized by construction in red brick with white or colored trim and double-hung windows, central halls, elaborately turned stair balusters, paneled and warmly colored walls, fine woodwork, and white plastered ceilings.
a universal style current since its inception in Britain in the late 18th century, passing from a period of superficial decoration to one in which true Gothic massing yielded such masterpieces as the British Houses of Parliament and Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning.
the general term employed to denote the several phases of European architecture in the period 1100-1530 that employ the pointed arch, or their imitations.
an austere American style of the period 1798-1850, embracing in either form or decoration such Greek features as bilateral symmetry, low-pitched roofs, frontal porticos with pediments, and horizontal doorheads; often executed in wood and painted white, the structures usually featured modifications of the classical orders and occasional imaginative use of interior vaulting.
the space between columns; the pattern of spacing between columns.
a style, current since the 1920s, that makes use of modern constructional advances to create buildings reflecting characteristic industrial forms and emphasizing both volume and horizontality through ribbon windows, smooth and undecorated wall surfaces, and flat roofs, with contrasts introduced by curved or cylindrical forms and cantilevered projecting features.
a current style emphasizing dynamism achieved by employment of sweeping curves, acute angles, and pointed arches.
a current American manner, characterized by buildings that are freestanding blocks with symmetrical elevation, level rooflines (often with heavy, projecting roof slabs), many modeled columnar supports, and frequent use of the arch as a ruling motif to produce a kind of classicism without classical forms.
the classical style evolved by the 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio, featuring harmonic proportion based upon mathematics, extensive use of porticos, a neat contrast between openness and solidity, and features of Roman decoration; partially influential today in the so-called “Palladian motif,” a window or other opening consisting of a central high arch flanked by lower rectangular areas, the whole supported by four columns (a feature actually invented before Palladio’s time and used only sparingly by him).
a style originating in England c.1830 and influential in the U.S. from 1850 through 1930, derived from the Renaissance palace architecture of Rome, Florence, and Venice; in the U.S., the structures were executed in masonry, wood, or cast iron.
functionalism.
a general term for the theory and techniques of construction. — tectonist, n. — tectonic, adj.
A framework or structure that portrays relationships among all the elements of the subject force, system, or activity.
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
| Noun | 1. |  architecture - an architectural product or work building, edifice - a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place; "there was a three-story building on the corner"; "it was an imposing edifice" architecture - the discipline dealing with the principles of design and construction and ornamentation of fine buildings; "architecture and eloquence are mixed arts whose end is sometimes beauty and sometimes use" |
| 2. | architecture - the discipline dealing with the principles of design and construction and ornamentation of fine buildings; "architecture and eloquence are mixed arts whose end is sometimes beauty and sometimes use" arch - (architecture) a masonry construction (usually curved) for spanning an opening and supporting the weight above it architectural ornament - (architecture) something added to a building to improve its appearance architecture - an architectural product or work attic - (architecture) a low wall at the top of the entablature; hides the roof pillar, column - (architecture) a tall vertical cylindrical structure standing upright and used to support a structure corbel arch - (architecture) an arch constructed of masonry courses that are corbelled until they meet corbie gable - (architecture) a gable having corbie-steps or corbel steps quoin, corner - (architecture) solid exterior angle of a building; especially one formed by a cornerstone drip mold, drip mould, drip - (architecture) a projection from a cornice or sill designed to protect the area below from rainwater (as over a window or doorway) entablature - (architecture) the structure consisting of the part of a classical temple above the columns between a capital and the roof modillion - (architecture) one of a set of ornamental brackets under a cornice pier - (architecture) a vertical supporting structure (as a portion of wall between two doors or windows) pinnacle - (architecture) a slender upright spire at the top of a buttress of tower spandrel, spandril - an approximately triangular surface area between two adjacent arches and the horizontal plane above them terminal figure, terminus, term - (architecture) a statue or a human bust or an animal carved out of the top of a square pillar; originally used as a boundary marker in ancient Rome vaulting - (architecture) a vaulted structure; "arches and vaulting" order - (architecture) one of original three styles of Greek architecture distinguished by the type of column and entablature used or a style developed from the original three by the Romans columniation - (architecture) the arrangement of columns (especially freestanding columns) in a structure fenestration - the arrangement of windows in a building art form - (architecture) a form of artistic expression (such as writing or painting or architecture) discipline, field of study, subject area, subject field, bailiwick, subject, field, study - a branch of knowledge; "in what discipline is his doctorate?"; "teachers should be well trained in their subject"; "anthropology is the study of human beings" architectonics, tectonics - the science of architecture landscape architecture - the branch of architecture dealing with the arrangement of land and buildings for human use and enjoyment urban planning - the branch of architecture dealing with the design and organization of urban space and activities interior design - the branch of architecture dealing with the selection and organization of furnishings for an architectural interior beaux arts, fine arts - the study and creation of visual works of art hip - (architecture) the exterior angle formed by the junction of a sloping side and a sloping end of a roof build - be engaged in building; "These architects build in interesting and new styles" corbel - furnish with a corbel cornice - furnish with a cornice attached - used of buildings joined by common sidewalls; "a block of attached houses" detached - used of buildings; standing apart from others; "detached houses"; "a detached garage" | |
| 3. |  architecture - the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their esthetic effectprofession - an occupation requiring special education (especially in the liberal arts or sciences) cantilever - construct with girders and beams such that only one end is fixed; "Frank Lloyd Wright liked to cantilever his buildings" step - furnish with steps; "The architect wants to step the terrace" rail - provide with rails; "The yard was railed" air-cool, air-condition - equip with an apparatus for controlling the humidity and temperature; "Our house is not air-conditioned" seat - provide with seats; "seat a concert hall" reseat - provide with new seats; "reseat Carnegie Hall" ramp - furnish with a ramp; "The ramped auditorium" rafter - provide (a ceiling) with rafters gate - supply with a gate; "The house was gated" machicolate - supply with projecting galleries; "machicolate the castle walls" sanitate - provide with sanitary facilities or appliances | |
| 4. | architecture - (computer science) the structure and organization of a computer's hardware or system software; "the architecture of a computer's system software" structure - the manner of construction of something and the arrangement of its parts; "artists must study the structure of the human body"; "the structure of the benzene molecule" complex instruction set computer, complex instruction set computing, CISC - (computer science) a kind of computer architecture that has a large number of instructions hard coded into the CPU chip reduced instruction set computer, reduced instruction set computing, RISC - (computer science) a kind of computer architecture that has a relatively small set of computer instructions that it can perform computer science, computing - the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures |
architecture
noun
1. design, planning, building, construction, architectonics He studied architecture and design at college.
2. construction, design, style a fine example of Moroccan architecture
3. structure, design, shape, make-up, construction, framework, layout, anatomy the architecture of muscle fibres see types of arch
Quotations
"Architecture in general is frozen music" [Friedrich von Schelling Philosophie der Kunst]
"Architecture is the art of how to waste space" [Philip Johnson New York Times]
"Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul" [Ernest Dimnet What We Live By]
"Architecture in general is frozen music" [Friedrich von Schelling Philosophie der Kunst]
"Architecture is the art of how to waste space" [Philip Johnson New York Times]
"Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul" [Ernest Dimnet What We Live By]
Architecture
Architectural styles Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baroque, Bauhaus, brutalist, Byzantine, churrigueresque or churrigueresco, classical, colonial, Composite, Corinthian, Decorated, Doric, Early Christian, Early English, Edwardian, Elizabethan, Empire, Federation (Austral.), functionalism, Georgian, Gothic, Gothic Revival, Greek Revival, International Style or Modernist, Ionic, Jacobean, Louis Quatorze, Louis Quinze, Louis Seize, Louis Treize, Mannerist, moderne, Moorish or Morisco, Mudéjar, neoclassicist, new brutalist, Norman, Palladian, perpendicular, postmodernist, Queen-Anne, Regency, Renaissance, Rococo, Roman, Romanesque, Saracen, Saxon, transition or transitional, Tudor, Tuscan, Victorian
Architectural terms abutment or abuttal, architectonic, architectonics, architectural, astylar, bolster, bracket, castellated or castled, cinquecento, cloistered, colossal or giant, composite, cradling, crenellate or (U.S.) crenelate, denticulate, diastyle, diminish, dipteral, discharge, drum, elevation, engaged, eurhythmy, fenestrated, filler, flamboyant, floor plan, floriated or floreated, florid, fluted, foliated, foliation, galilee, galleria, ground plan, hexastyle, high-pitched, hip, hipped, hypostyle, imbricate or imbricated, intercolumniation, invert, joggle post or king post, lanceted, lierne, lintel or summer, listed, loggia, member, module, Moresque, naos, order, orientation, polychromy, postiche, profile, prostyle, pulvinate or pulvinated, queen post, rampant, rendering, respond, return, rhythm, ribbon development, rise, rusticate, sexpartite, shaft, shafting, shell, soffit, springing, spring, springing line, or springing point, stilted, storey, stria, stringer, string, or string course, stylobate, subbase, summer or summer tree, supercolumnar, surbase, tailpiece or tail beam, trabeate or trabeated, tympanic, underpitch vault
Architectural features abacus, acanthus, accolade, acroter, aisle, ambulatory, amphiprostyle, amphistylar, ancon or ancone, annulet, anta, antefix, anthemion, apophyge or hypophyge, apse or apsis, apteral, arcade, arcature, arch, architrave, archivolt, arcuation, arris, articulation, astragal, atlas (plural atlantes) or telamon, atrium, attic, baguette or baguet, balcony, baldachin, balk, ballflower, baluster, band, banderole, banderol, or bannerol, barge couple, barge course, barrel vault, tunnel vault, or wagon vault, base, basement, bay window, bead, beak, bed moulding, belfry, bezant, bezzant, or byzant, billet, binder, bolection or bilection, bottom house, bow, bow window, bracket, brattishing, breast, broach, buttress, caisson, coffer, or lacuna, calotte, canopy, cantilever, capital, chapiter, or cap, cartouche, caryatid, case or casing, casement, Catherine wheel, cavetto, ceiling, cella or naos, cellar, channel, chaplet, cheek, chevron or dancette, choir, choir loft, cinquefoil, clerestory, cloister, colonnade, columbarium, column, columniation, compass window, concha or conch, congé, corbeil or corbeille, corbel or truss, corbie gable, corbie-step, corbel step, or crow step, cordon, string course, belt course, or table, cornice, corona, cove or coving, crenel or crenelle, cresting, crocket or crochet, crossing, crown, cullis, cupola, curb roof, curtail step, curtain wall, cushion, cusp, cuspidation, cyma, cymatium, dado, decastyle, dentil, die, dogtooth, drip, dripstone, label, or hood mould, echinus, ectype, egg and dart, egg and tongue, or egg and anchor, ell, embrasure, entablature, entasis, exedra, extrados, facade, facet, fan, fanlight, fantail, fan tracery, fan or palm vaulting, fascia or facia, fascial or facial, fenestella, fenestra, festoon, fillet or listel, finial, flèche, fluting, flying buttress or arc-boutant, foil, footing, footstall, French windows or doors, frieze, frontispiece, frustum, gable, gable end, gable window, gadroon or godroon, gallery, gambrel, gargoyle, garret, garth, gatehouse, gazebo, glyph, gradin, griffe, groin, grotto, gutta, half landing, haunch or hance, headstone, headwork, helicline, hipped or hip roof, imperial, impost, intrados, jube, keystone, quoin, or headstone, lancet arch, Gothic arch, or ogive, lancet window, landing, lantern, leaded, loggia, long-and-short work, louvre, lucarne, machicolation, mansard, meander, medallion, metope, minaret, modillion, moulding, mullion, mutule, narthex, neck, necking or gorgerin, newel, niche, Norman arch or Roman arch, obelisk, oeil-de-boeuf, offset, ogee, ogee arch, or talon, ogive, onion dome, oriel or oriel window, ovolo, quarter round, or thumb, pace, parapet, patio, pedestal, pediment, pendant, penthouse, peristyle, perpend, perron, piazza, pier, pillar, pinnacle, platform, plinth, podium, predella, pylon, quad, poppyhead, porch or portico, portal, porte-cochere, postern, propylaeum, quadrangle, quatrefoil, quirk, quoin, coign, or coigne, reed, reeding, reglet, relief, respond, return, reveal, rib, ridge, rose window, rosace, or rosette, rotunda, roundel, saddle roof or saddleback, sash window, scotia, screen, scrollwork, semidome, shaft, shafting, sill, skew arch, skylight, soffit, spandrel or spandril, spire, splay, springer, squinch, squint or hagioscope, steeple, stele or stela, stoa, straining piece, strap work, stria, strigil, stylobate or stereobate, summer, taenia or (U.S.) tenia, tambour, tellamon, term, terminal, or terminus, torus or tore, tracery, transept, traverse, trefoil, tribune, triforium, triglyph, trophy, trumeau, turret, tympanum or tympan, underpitch vault, vault, veranda or verandah, verge, vignette, volute or helix, water table, web, whispering gallery, xyst
Architects Alvar Aalto (Finnish), (Leslie) Patrick Abercrombie (English), James Adam (Scottish), Robert Adam (Scottish), William Adam (Scottish), Leon Battista Alberti (Italian), Anthemias of Tralles (Greek), Arnolfo di Cambio (Italian), Erik Gunnar Asplund (Swedish), Herbert Baker (English), Charles Barry (English), Frédéric August Bartholdi (French), Peter Behrens (German), Hendrick Petrus Berlage (Dutch), Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian), Francesco Borromini (Italian), Etienne-Louis Boulle (French), Donato Bramante (Italian), Marcel Lajos Breuer (Hungarian-U.S.), Salomon de Brosse (French), Filippo Brunelleschi (Italian), David Bryce (Scottish), David Hudson Burnham (U.S.), Decimus Burton (English), William Butterfield (English), Callicrates (Greek), Jacob van Campen (Dutch), Felix Candela (Mexican), Hugh (Maxwell) Casson (English), William Chambers (Scottish), Serge Chermayeff (U.S.), Don Jose Churriguera (Spanish), Wells Wintemute Coates (English), Charles Robert Cockerell (English), Pietro Berrettini da Cortona (Italian), Francois de Cuvillies (Bavarian), Daedalus (Greek), George Dance (the Elder) (English), George Dance (the Younger) (English), Philibert Delorme or de l'Orme (French), Theo van Doesburg (Dutch), Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi (Indian), Willem Marinus Dudok (Dutch), Johann Carl Ludwig Engel (Finnish), Arthur Charles Erickson (Canadian), Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (Austrian), Norman Foster (English), (Richard) Buckminster Fuller (U.S.), Ange-Jacques Gabriel (French), Tony (Antoine) Garnier (French), Antonio Gaudí (Spanish), Patrick Geddes (Scottish), Frederick Gibberd (English), James Gibbs (English), Cass Gilbert (U.S.), Friedrich Gilly (German), Francesco di Giorgio (Italian), Giotto (di Bondone) (Italian), Giulio Romano (Italian), Walter Gropius (German), Guarino Guarini (Italian), Thomas Hamilton (Scottish), Georges Eugene Haussmann (French), Nicholas Hawksmoor (English), Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt (Austrian), Josef Hoffmann (Austrian), Henry Holland (English), Victor Horta (Belgian), Ebenezer Howard (English), Ictinus (Greek), Imhotep (Egyptian), Arne Jacobsen (Danish), Philip Cortelyou Johnson (U.S.), Inigo Jones (English), Louis I(sadore) Kahn (U.S.), William Kent (English), (Pierre Francois) Henri Labrouste (French), Denys Lasdun (English), Le Corbusier (French), Claude Nicolas Ledoux (French), Leonardo da Vinci (Italian), Pierre Lescot (French), William Richard Lethaby (English), Louis Levau (French), Adolf Loos (Austrian), Robert Stodart Lorimer (Scottish), Edwin Lutyens (English), Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Scottish), Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo (English), Carlo Maderna or Maderno (Italian), François Mansart (French), Jules Hardouin Mansart (French), Eric Mendelsohn (German), Michelangelo (Italian), Michelozzo (Italian), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (German-U.S.), Charles Willard Moore (U.S.), John Nash (English), Pier Luigi Nervi (Italian), Johann Balthasar Neumann (German), Oscar Niemeyer (Brazilian), Andrea Orcagna (Italian), Jacobus Johann Pieter Oud (Dutch), Andrea Palladio (Italian), Joseph Paxton (English), I(eoh) M(ing) Pei (Chinese-U.S.), Auguste Perret (French), Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (Italian), Pietro da Cortona (Italian), Giambattista Piranesi (Italian), Andrea Pisano (Italian), Nicola Pisano (Italian), William Henry Playfair (Scottish), Hans Poelzig (German), Augustus (Welby Northmore) Pugin (English), Raphael (Italian), James Renwick (U.S.), Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (Dutch), Richard Rogers (English), Eero Saarinen (Finnish-U.S.), Michele Sanmicheli (Italian), Jacopo Sansovino (Italian), Karl Friederich Schinkel (German), Scopas (Greek), George Gilbert Scott (English), Giles Gilbert Scott (English), Sebastiano Serlio (Italian), Richard Norman Shaw (English), Robert Smirke (English), Robert Smythson (English), John Soane (English), Ettore Sottsass Jr (Italian), Jacques Germain Soufflot (French), Basil (Unwin) Spence (Scottish), James Stirling (Scottish), George Edmund Street (English), James Stuart (English), Louis (Henri) Sullivan (U.S.), Kenzo Tange (Japanese), (John) Quinlan Terry (English), Alexander (Greek) Thomson (Scottish), Jorn Utzon (Danish), John Vanbrugh (English), Henry van de Velde (Belgian), Giorgio Vasari (Italian), Robert Venturi (U.S.), Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (Italian), Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (French), Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (Roman), Charles (Francis Annesley) Voysey (English), Otto Wagner (Austrian), Alfred Waterhouse (English), Aston Webb (English), Philip Webb (English), John Wood (the Elder) (English), John Wood (the Younger) (English), Christopher Wren (English), Frank Lloyd Wright (U.S.), James Wyatt (English), Minoru Yamasaki (U.S.)
Translations
architecture [ˈɑːrkɪtɛktʃər] n
(= building design) → architecture f
(as subject of study) → architecture f
(= building) → architecture f
architecture
n → Architektur f (also Comput); (of building also) → Baustil m
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