Vitruvius, the Roman architect and author of the first written work on the subject of architecture, De architectura, believed a good building should satisfy three principles:

• Durability
• Utility
• Beauty

Le Corbusier, the renowned 20th Century architect, made an explicit distinction between architecture and construction: “You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces; that is construction.  Ingenuity is a work.  But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good.  I am happy and I say: This is beautiful.  That is Architecture”.

Nunzia Rondanini stated, “Through it’s aesthetic dimension, architecture goes beyond the functional aspects that it has in common with other human sciences.  Through it’s own particular way of expressing values, architecture can stimulate and influence social life without presuming that, in and of itself, it will promote social development.  To restrict the meaning of formalism to art for art’s sake is not only reactionary; it can also be a purposeless quest for perfection or originality which degrades form into a mere instrumentality”.

Architecture does not exist in a vacuum.  Nor can architectural form be a compilation of historical precedent, functional necessities, and socially aware concerns.  In order to achieve true significance, a work of architecture must be a transcendent synthesis of all the former as well as a creation of worth, in and of itself.