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 how a building integrates with its surrounding manmade landscape (see town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture) to the micro level of architectural or construction details and, sometimes, furniture. The term "Architecture" is also used for the profession of providing architectural services.

Architects are primarily driven by the creative manipulation of mass, space, volume, texture, light, shadow, materials, program, and pragmatic 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 driven primarily by the creative manipulation of materials and forms using mathematical and scientific principles.

Separate from the design process, architecture is also experienced through the senses, which therefore gives rise to aural , visual, olfactory , and tactile architecture. As people move through a space, architecture is experienced as a time sequence. Even though our culture considers architecture to be a visual experience, the other senses play a role in how we experience both natural and built environments. Attitudes towards the senses depend on culture . The design process and the sensory experience of a space are distinctly separate views, each with its own language and assumptions.