What Architecture Means introduces you to architecture and allows you to explore the connections between design ideas and values across time‎,‎ space‎,‎ and culture‎.‎ It equips you to play an active and informed role in architecture either as a professional or as a consumer‎,‎ client‎,‎ and citizen‎.‎ By analyzing famous and everyday buildings while presenting and questioning the positions of important architects and theorists‎,‎ this book will help you to evaluate and decide what qualities‎,‎ ideas‎,‎ and values you believe are important in architecture‎.‎ You‎'‎ll learn‎:‎ ‎-How various definitions of ‎"‎architecture‎"‎ establish different relationships with all buildings‎,‎ and even non‎-buildings‎;‎ ‎-How buildings express and accommodate ideas of the sacred‎,‎ the family‎,‎ and the community‎;‎ ‎-What an architect is‎,‎ and what priorities they bring to design and construction‎;‎ ‎-How an architect‎'‎s expertise relates to that of the engineer‎,‎ and why these are distinct disciplines‎;‎ ‎-About values like beauty‎,‎ originality‎,‎ structural expression‎,‎ and cultural memory and their purpose in architectural design‎;‎ ‎-About the interests and ethical values that architects‎,‎ and architecture‎,‎ serves and promotes‎.‎ Topics include sacred spaces‎,‎ the house‎,‎ the city‎,‎ architects and engineers‎,‎ aesthetics and design‎,‎ originality and method‎,‎ technology and form‎,‎ memory and identity‎,‎ and power and politics‎.‎