It is also a question that is particularly important for students who are looking for different perspectives on architecture as they come to form their own definitions.

While artists work from real to the abstract, architects must work from the abstract to the real. Architecture, beneath all its limitations of engineering, safety, function, climate and economy, arouse us with designs in space and light achieved in the abstract.

Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and other physical structures. A wider definition often includes the design of the total built environment from the macro level of town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to the micro level of construction details and, sometimes, furniture. The term “Architecture” is also used for the profession of providing architectural services.

Architectural design is primarily driven by the holistically creative manipulation of mass, space, volume, texture, light, shadow, materials, program, and Realistic elements such as cost, construction and technology, in order to achieve an end which is aesthetic, functional and often artistic. This distinguishes Architecture from engineering design, which is usually driven primarily by the creative application of mathematical and scientific principles.

Interior Architecture bridges the practices of interior design and architecture so that professionals working in the field have a structural and load bearing education with an emphasis on interior spaces. The field is similar to architecture in that it deals with structures and load bearing walls. It is similar to interior design in that it focuses on interior spaces.

There is no one-size-fits approach in architecture, each building project should respond to its very unique context: site, climate, social, budget and materials.

Buildings also need to be able to age well, to adapt to changing requirements and have flexibility to accommodate various uses. They also should be built sustainable, in both the materials that they use during construction, and the energy resources that they require to function.