Architectonic

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In philosophy, Architectonics is the scientific systematisation of all knowledge. The term was first used by Aristotle in his Politics to describe politics, meaning that politics encompasses all knowledge.^{[citation needed]}

In architecture it is often defined as "of or relating to the science of architecture and design".^{[citation needed]} In this sense, "Architectonic" means the art and science of building and construction.^{[citation needed]} The word began to acquire its modern meaning in the late nineteenth century in Germany as architektonisch to define a type of perceived sensibility to form and design, a sensibility that preferred the simple over the complex, and the well-built over the mass-produced. Today, the word architectonics is used more narrowly in a semiotic sense to refer to the use of parts as expressive signs that comprise the language system of the building.

It is also used to describe an approach to designing where the structural elements of a building are revealed, and their function expressed. For example, the Dancing House by architect Frank Gehry. This meaning may be derived from geology and the study of movement and deformation features of the planet's surface (see: plate "tectonics" or continental drift).