Architecture, according to Leland M. Roth, author of Understanding Architecture, is the unavoidable art (Roth, 3-7). The reason architecture is so unavoidable is because all buildings share one primary function: To shelter human beings and those things that human beings value.
More broadly, buildings have six major functions beyond this; they have religious functions, civic or governmental functions, educational functions, residential functions, commercial functions, and entertainment functions.
The three things that all buildings must include, according to Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a Roman architect whose writings heavily influenced the development of western architecture, are utility, firmness and beauty. The first we have already covered above when we said that all buildings serve a function. Buildings are too expensive and time-consuming to build for the sake of building, and every building erected serves a purpose to its patrons or contractors. That is to say, every building serves a specific utility, be it religious, civic, educational, or so on. The other two items, firmness and beauty, however, beg extended discussion.
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