the‘fundamental organization of a system embodied in its components, their relationships to eachother and to the environment, and the principlesguiding its design and evolution’ (Maier, Emery, and Hilliard, 2001: 108).
Contained in this definition is the layman’s understanding that structure should be consistent with purpose (‘form must follow function’). Over time, the concept of architecture across a variety of domains has shifted from a focus on the design of specific structures to a focus on principles that foster coherence, growth, and change (Avermaete, 2005).