An Introduction to Architecture

New to architecture? Discover great buildings and structures, learn about famous builders and designers, and see how buildings have changed through history.

  • detail of the corner of an ornate stone urban building
    What's a Quoin? Corner Stones
  • wooden sculpting with flat top, swirl volutes on each side, and leafy ornamentation on the surface
    The Ancient Roman Composite Column
  • Silhouette of back of a person's head with large headphones in computer glow
    CAD and BIM Architecture and Design Software
  • repurposed building
    Giving Old Buildings New Life Through Adaptive Reuse
  • A worker installs a building model during the Beijing Winter Real Estate Fair
    Start to Be an Architect in High School
  • Detail of tops of corinthean columns
    The History of Corinthian Columns
  • Half-timbered Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire
    The Look of Medieval Half-Timbered Construction
  • Futuristic towers and skyscrapers make up the skyline of Shanghai City in China
    10 Free High-Interest Lessons - Architecture for All Ages
  • Hands pointing to a floor plan on a digital tablet, with architectural drawings being modified behind it.
    Tools for Drawing Simple Floor Plans
  • illustration of the tops of three column types, the second more ornate than the first and the third is the most ornate
    Styles and Types of Columns, Posts, and Pillars
  • The angle of the sun pronouncing the intricacy of the roof shape and diagonal shingling
    Roof Styles and Shapes
  • Front view of majestic Doric temple of Segesta against gramatic sky in Sicily, Italy
    A Pediment Can Make Your Home a Greek Temple
  • Ionic Columns of the US Treasury Building in Washington, DC
    All About the Ionic Column
  • Building a Tower c.1200, masons check angles with plumb line, construction workers with bricks
    How Did Architecture Become a Licensed Profession?
  • Griffin On the Roof of The Museum Of Science And Industry
    The Griffin in Architecture and Design
  • Combination Illustration of egg-and-dart patterns on an Ionic column (top) and a piece of ancient cornice (bottom)
    Egg-and-Dart Classical Ornamentation
  • Frank Lloyd Wright mitered glass, Wyoming Valley School (1957), Spring Green, Wisconsin.
    Miter and a Mitered Window
  • Stucco Sided Dwellings in Ybbsitz, Lower Autria
    The Art and Architecture of Stucco
  • Twelve Marble Doric Columns Create a Small Doric Temple, 1931, to Memorialize the World War I Soldiers from the City of Washington, DC
    Introduction to the Doric Column
  • Close up of the flying buttresses on a cathedral.
    10 Examples of Buttress Styles
  • lower half view of person in black pants and black shoes holding a white cane pointed outward on a masonry plaza
    Designing for the Blind
  • Mid-century modern living room, blue chairs, built-in bookcases along wall under horizontal windows along the top of the natural wood wall
    The Clerestory Window in Architecture
  • light-colored ornate ceiling, one color, deep indentations, designs within the indentations
    All About the Coffered Ceiling
  • Female student architect in sleevless top, leaning over drafting table to draw plans
    13 Things Aspiring Architects Need to Know
  • In daylight, ETFE cladding can look like panels of silver aluminum
    ETFE and the New Look of Plastic
  • Woman in wheelchair at the John Hancock Tower and Trinity Church in Boston, Massachusetts
    Architecture Basics - Learn What's What and Who's Who
  • Cell-like capsule pods are individual living units in the Nakagin Capsule Tower Apartments
    What Is Metabolism in Architecture?
  • architecture school studio area, drafting tables, students working together on projects
    Top Architecture Schools in the U.S.
  • woman drawing plans on computer
    How to Study Architecture Online
  • Queensboro Plaza, New York
    The Importance of Infrastructure
  • detail of renaissance villa with shallow pilasters separating vertical windows - View of the second and third floor of the facade, with angular smooth rustication and Ionic pilasters
    All About Pilasters in Architecture
  • Close up of young architect sitting in a 3D printer office and watching 3D printings
    Career Opportunities After Architecture School
  • The Principal of an architecture practice, like Daniel Libeskind show here, is at the center of decision making.
    4 Steps to a Life in Architecture
  • A White Stone Home with White Stone Retaining Wall
    About Austin Stone and Architectural Limestone
  • Facades Of City Buildings, with balconies and dish antennae
    What Is a Facade?
  • illustration of five architectural column types -- some fluted shafts and some ornate capitals -- with their associated entablatures
    About the Classical Order of Architecture
  • Prairie style house on a bright, sunny day.
    Universal Design is Architecture for All
  • Overhead View of London rooftops with chimneys and chimney pot extnsions
    Chimney Pots - Designed for Beauty and Function
  • a row of yellow houses that look like yellow boxes turned on their angled side down -- next to a multi-sided round tower building with a pointed roof, like a pencil
    Do Architects Have To Be Mathematicians?
  • Cast iron steam radiators -- Steam radiators can be rescued and cost less than a new radiator.
    About Architectural Antiquities and Salvage
  • Empty room with wood paneled walls and coffered ceiling. View of family room with old fireplace with stone trim.
    A Gallery of Coffered Ceilings
  • path and garden beneath a framework of plastic sheathing
    ETFE Architecture: A Photo Journey
  • The White House Colonnade, Pathway to the Oval Office of the US President
    What Is a column? What Is a colonnade?
  • interior view of church, triangles of stained glass form a triangular entry wall, cardboard tubes take the shape of the triangular sides to form interior sanctuary walls
    The Three Rules of Architecture
  • The Three-Part Palladian Window, wooden, 8-paned vertical rectangular windows on either side of a 26-paned arched window
    Palladian Window - The Look of Elegance
  • Architecture Student Working at a Drafting Table
    Learning Architecture at College
  • modern building, asymmetrical, angled roof with windows, columned facade
    Find the Best School for Architecture
  • Flat roof, overhang, many corbels as ornamentation
    Corbels in Architecture—A Photo Gallery
  • software rendering of floor plan in three dimensions, looking down into furnished rooms when a roof is gone
    A Look at Home Designer Software by Chief Architect
  • A blue serpent seems to swim through the gray wall of an urban building.
    Trompe l'Oeil Art Fools the Eye
  • Production homes under construction in California, 2015
    Save Money With Stock Plans and a Production Home Builder
  • free-flowing multi-story building covered with silver discs, openings on the narrow end
    The Binary Large Object of Blob Architecture
  • Contractor on ladder working on second story of home
    Hardie Board and Fiber Cement Siding
  • Street-level cast-iron facade painted green, engaged columns with capitals define large glass display windows
    Revolutionary Cast-Iron Architecture
  • Living Room, Entryway, and Banisters in contemporary home
    Banisters, Baiusters, and Balustrades in History
  • Detail of Ornate Cast-Iron Facade, with arches above each window, engaged columns projecting from the window sides, and a balustrade below each window
    Introduction to Cast-Iron Architecture
  • The portico of an classic antebellum plantation home, with lines of tooth-like dentils in the pediment and the cornice
    Dentils and Dentil Molding
  • Peaked Roof of the Denver Airport Terminal
    Exploring the Architecture of Tension
  • illustration of the curved triangular areas that lift a dome to greater heights
    The Pendentive and the Art of the Dome
  • Living Room with a white Barcelona chair and black Eames style lounge chair
    Chairs By Famous Architects - Architecture You Can Sit On
  • detail of stone portico, showing the tops of fluted columns, fancy capitals, a carved inscription (equal justice under law), dentils, and part of a pediment filled with sculture
    The Entablature Helps You Get That Greek Revival Look
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