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Aside from the fact that architecture serves both aesthetic and utilitarian ends, little did we know that architecture has an underlying meaning. In every architectural structure, each of them embodies an underlying meaning and importance.

In this short essay, I shall explain the meaning and importance of architecture, as I apply the lessons that I have learned in my Fine Arts class. Among the many types of architecture, I have chosen three types of architecture to discuss the meaning and importance of architecture to humans that emerged to the following types: (1) Church Architecture; (2) Classical Architecture; and (3) Organic Architecture.

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First, through Church Architecture, believers are capable of having a house of prayer or a small kingdom of heaven on earth. In this architectural structure, the church, devotees can express their faith and devotion wherein they can find a sense of solemnity, peace, protection, and guidance. Through this dwelling place, they can also render their service to God, and long to see God face-to-face. Therefore, church architecture serves as a way for humans to express their faith and hope that in the church they will find their way to God. This was affirmed by Pope Benedict XVI when he said:

“Art is able to manifest and make visible the human need to surpass the visible, it expresses the thirst and the quest for the infinite. Some artistic expressions are real highways to God, the supreme Beauty; indeed, they help us to grow in our relationship with him, in prayer.”

This is the reason why the Church gives importance to the planning and designing of the churches, for it should somehow serve as a visible kingdom of God here on earth.

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Second, from the two-period, Greek and Roman periods, known as the Classical Architecture, serves as an expression of logic and order. Greek period introduces the different elements in architecture such as the proportioning system (golden ratio) and orders wherein during that time each order is meant to imitate ideal human forms and can be viewed in their temples. On the other hand, Roman architecture developed the context of strength (firmitas), functionality (utilitas), and beauty (venustas), these three additional elements are called the Vitruvian Triad. All of these elements aforementioned contributed to the evolving art of architecture, which, therefore, signifies the application or use of human reason in architecture.

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Finally, architecture sets out the balance between modern and organic. Meaning, the Organic Architecture allows us to live in harmony with nature despite the evolving refinement of man. Through organic architecture, its very structure integrates man with nature and becomes “an integral part of your lives” (Wright, 1935). A good example of this would be Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water architecture, a vacation house for the Kaufmanns. And Edgar Kaufmann (1963) attest to it when he said:

“Fallingwater is famous because the house in its setting embodies a powerful ideal that people today can learn to live in harmony with nature...As technology uses more and more natural resources, as the world’s population grows even larger, harmony with nature is necessary for the very existence of mankind.”

Thus, architecture helped humans find a way to reconnect once more to nature and teaches us how to appreciate it.