The term architecture can be used to mean a process, a profession or documentation.

As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures, primarily done to provide socially purposeful shelter. A wider definition often includes the design of the total built environment, from the macro level of how a building integrates with its surrounding man made landscape (see town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture) to the micro level of architectural or construction details and, sometimes, furniture. Wider still, architecture is the activity of designing any kind of system.

As a profession, architecture is the role of those of providing architectural services.