The phrase built environment refers to the manmade surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, from the largest-scale civic surroundings to the smallest personal place.
In architecture and environmental psychology, the phrase is a useful acknowledgement that less than 15% of buildings constructed annually in the western world are designed by architects per se, and that users of the built environment encounter issues that cross the traditional professional boundaries between urban planners, traffic engineers, zoning authorities, architects, interior designers, industrial designers, etc.
In landscape architecture, the built environment is identified as opposed to the natural environment, with the recognition that places like Central Park may have the look, feel, and nourishing quality of natural surroundings while being completely artificial and "built", thus blurring the line between the two.
In urban planning, the phrase connotes the idea that a large percentage of the human environment is manmade, and these artificial surroundings are so extensive and cohesive that they function as organisms in the consumption of resources, disposal of wastes, and facilitation of productive enterprise within its bounds.
See also