By the term "architecture," I am referring to the entire built environment, from interior design, to houses and other buildings, to garden and landscape architecture, and beyond. Architecture even covers areas as vast as town planning and as narrow as furniture.
The word architecture is derived from the greek words for FIRST and CRAFTSMANSHIP.
From a very young age, I have had a love of the architecture of residential buildings and castles. For almost as long as I can remember, I have been using graph paper to sketch out ideas for houses — floor plans, elevations, details, etc. When I was a child attending grade school at Smith College, a teacher assigned the class the task of drawing a floor plan of their homes. I must have been about six years old, and this is the earliest time I can remember drawing architectural plans. But I remember loving the crenalations of buildings in Northampton long before even putting pen to paper.
My taste in residential buildings is quite broad: from Colonial to Victorian to some modern styles. I also have an interest in the construction of buildings. The typical way that new homes are constructed today is appalling. The toxic materials used and lack air exchange injure occupants, who are unaware of the danger. The inefficient design of most new homes wastes energy and, unlike most historic homes, forces them to rely on vast amounts of energy. Materials typically used in home construction today are also most frequently transported long distances, instead of the old fashioned notion of using mostly materials that come from nearby.
