Architecture Is Not Sculpture

With sculpture, you create a form from a homogeneous medium. Either you take away from the medium, as in a block of stone. Or you collect together pieces of the medium, as can be done in clay or glass.

Architecture is different. The result of architecture is a collection of heterogeneous materials, connected in various ways.

Subsequently, I think it hard to sculpt a software system as you can do with a software application. I think the keyword above is heterogeneous. As an architect you can't assume one material will be sufficient for all your needs. Or one language, data format, or protocol.

Maybe architecture is the very idea of connecting disjoint things in useful ways.

With this distinction, recognize when one should be applied over the other. If a software system is really a system, don't sculpt it. Identify the heterogeneous nature upfront, and leverage it. By their very nature, sculptures are tightly coupled, and a tightly coupled architecture is not a worthy goal.

Note that sometimes things need to fit in the spaces between the elements of an architected system to enhance it's performance, utility, or beauty.

These are obviously generalizations, but you get the point.