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the profession of designing buildings, open areas, communities, and other artificial constructions and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect. Architecture often includes design or selection of furnishings and decorations, supervision of construction work, and the examination, restoration, or remodeling of existing buildings.
the character or style of building:
the architecture of Paris; Romanesque architecture.
the action or process of building; construction.
the result or product of work, as a building.
buildings collectively.
a fundamental underlying design of computer hardware, software, or both.
the structure of anything:
the architecture of a novel.
Contemporary Examples

She talks to Noah Charney about how she maps out the architecture of her books, and what time she eats dinner.
Emma Donoghue: The How I Write Interview Noah Charney October 23, 2012

architecture is frozen music, Goethe wrote, and to my mind cities are, too.
‘Heroic Old Warhorse’ Jan Morris February 17, 2011

Educated in China, Nga, who now goes by Hang Nga, got her Ph.D. in architecture from the University of Moscow.
Book a Room at Vietnam’s ‘Crazy House’ Nina Strochlic July 10, 2013

An architecture student, Atta was by all accounts a very determined and ruthless person.
The 9/11 Attacks’ Spiritual Father Bruce Riedel September 10, 2011

The architecture of the WPA had a very distinct, and very consistent, aesthetic: austere Art Deco, bordering on the monolithic.
Obama’s Building Boom: Will His Architecture Legacy Be as Lasting as FDR’s? Ian Volner January 3, 2011

Historical Examples

It is just the sort of architecture that a merchant with a fortune would pay for.
Medieval People Eileen Edna Power

This tendency of late, has been painfully visible in his architecture.
Modern Painters Volume I (of V) John Ruskin

The Buddhist literature discovered in Central Asia represents, like its architecture, several periods.
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) Charles Eliot

Lancet windows: high, narrow windows of the earliest Gothic architecture.
Tom Brown at Rugby Thomas Hughes

architecture lives through the life of things, and every hour of the day lends it a new expression.
Rodin: The Man and his Art Judith Cladel

noun
the art and science of designing and superintending the erection of buildings and similar structures
a style of building or structure: Gothic architecture
buildings or structures collectively
the structure or design of anything: the architecture of the universe
the internal organization of a computer’s components with particular reference to the way in which data is transmitted
the arrangement of the various devices in a complete computer system or network
n.

1560s, from Middle French architecture, from Latin architectura, from architectus “architect” (see architect).

architecture
Design, the way components fit together. The term is used particularly of processors, both individual and in general. “The ARM has a really clean architecture”. It may also be used of any complex system, e.g. “software architecture”, “network architecture”.
(1995-05-02)