What is architecture? Here’s a nice video that describes it in a unique way. Architecture from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.

Tom Graves says that for him the missing element of the architecture definition is that every structure:

 …implies a story, expresses a story, provides a stage for a story. Architecture is what people do to create structure. Building is how we create structure.  But story is why people do what they do to create structure. Story is that other missing key to architecture. Or, to put it another way: Architecture is the intersection of structure and story.

Like the video says architecture is about distilling out the essence of something, whether it be a building, a software system or, in this case, a cup, and sharing what is unique about it. The sharing is the story behind the architecture. How you tell that story, whether it be in documents, pictures or presentations, is key to the essence of the architecture as well.