Week 1 Reading Introduction to architecture

Architecture is a language that we understand because we inhabit buildings, they surround us and create our world.The etymology of the word ‘architecture’ can be defined as arkhi meaning chief and tekton meaning builder or carpenter and this definition demonstrates the fundamental basis of architecture.Architecture, as many other design disciplines, starts with concepts or ideas that initiate the creative process of thinking.

According to Thomas Graham Jackson,architecture is an ornament added to building.It is a science involving much "discipline" , or mental training, and deep knowldge of various kinds, so that by its judmentall work done by the other arts have to be tried and approved.At its simplest form, architecture can be about designing spaces or rooms, or, at its most complex, designing buildings, streets and cities.Architecture is about form and space making, but it also deals with function and how function affects form.

Finally, architecture does not consist in beautifying buildings, but in building beautifully.