Architecture

Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings. The people who do this work are called architects. Architecture is both an art, because buildings can be beautiful, and a science, because buildings have to stand up safely. Every house, school, temple, stadium, and skyscraper started as a drawing made by an architect.

Good architecture has to do three things at once. A building must be useful, meaning it works for the people inside it. It must be strong, meaning it does not fall down in wind, rain, or earthquakes. And it should be pleasing to look at. A Roman writer named Vitruvius listed these three rules more than 2,000 years ago. Architects still follow them today.

Different cultures have built in very different ways. Ancient Egyptians stacked huge stone blocks into pyramids. Ancient Greeks lined up tall columns to hold up flat stone roofs. The Romans invented the arch and the dome, which let them build huge spaces with no columns in the middle. In China, builders used curved tile roofs and wooden frames that could bend in earthquakes. In the cold north, the Vikings built long wooden halls. In the desert, people built thick mud-brick walls that stayed cool inside.

The biggest change in architecture came with the elevator and steel. Before the late 1800s, most buildings were only a few stories tall. Walls had to be very thick at the bottom to hold up the floors above. Then engineers learned to build frames out of steel, which is much stronger than stone for its weight. Suddenly buildings could rise twenty, fifty, even a hundred stories. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is now over 2,700 feet tall, taller than two Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other.

Architects today think about more than just looks and strength. They also think about energy. Buildings use about 40 percent of all the energy people burn each year. New "green" buildings try to use less. Some have solar panels on the roof. Some have walls covered in plants. Some are shaped to catch cool breezes in summer and trap warm sun in winter.

The next time you walk into a building, look up. Notice the shape of the ceiling, the size of the windows, the way the light falls. Someone made every one of those choices on purpose. That is architecture.