What is architecture? Is it the practice of designing or rather the art of designing buildings? Is architecture the need for shelter? If so, then when did humanity transcend cave life and transition to communal life as seen in the Catalhoyuk remains? Humanity has not stopped the progress of architecture in community life; architecture has continued to evolve to meet the ever-increasing needs of humanity. Has architecture been around since the days when humanity resided in caves and simply evolved with humans to become the modern method of construction? These questions and many others have been asked and debated for centuries, and as architects we study the arguments and ideals of the world's greatest who have asked: what is architecture? Thesis: Gottfried Semper and Karl Friedrich Schinkel are two of the most important names in architecture and architectural theory of the 19th century. Both of these men practiced architecture during the 1800s in Europe and both had strong beliefs regarding their personal answers to the question of what architecture is and should be. By critically examining the works and writings of these men, discerning similarities and differences in beliefs and practices, delving into historical contexts, and reasoning behind their beliefs, we as architects gain a better understanding of the art of designing the built environment. Text: Karl Friedrich Schinkel was born in 1781 in Germany. He was a student of the architect Friedrich Gilly, whose work at the Berlin Academy Exhibition initially inspired Schinkel to become an architect. Schinkel's philosophy was most influenced by Johann Fichte. Fichte firmly believed in the creative power of man. Schinkel clung to the beautiful... in the center of Fichte's paper... has a bit that both Schinkel and Semper had many things in common. While Semper lived and designed Gesamtkunstwerk, and Schinkel believed his buildings were a profound social tool for reworking a society, both men achieved the same overall goal: an architecture that became a stepping stone to the next era. Designing the built environment is an all-inclusive college of study. We must look to the future and make conscientious decisions about it. We have to look to our left and our right to see what is around us now, and the society, the people for whom we are creating. And finally, we must look behind us. We must study the old, learn from his mistakes, from his great achievements. Men like Gottfried Semper and Karl Friedrich Schinkel created our present from their past, now we must look around to create the present of the future from our past.