Adel, A.Djeridi, R.Rajkumar RoyEssam Shehab2009-10-012009-10-0120092009-03-31A. Adel, R. Djeridi, We are Designers Because We Can Abstract, Proceedings of the 19th CIRP Design Conference – Competitive Design, Cranfield University, 30-31 March 2009, pp377978-0-9557436-4-1http://hdl.handle.net/1826/3716Organised by: Cranfield UniversityDue to the increasing systems complexity, architecture design became an important issue. It gained interest and its importance was framed in three domains: as a way to understand complex systems, to design them, to manage their manufacturing process and to provide long-term rationality. The purpose of this paper is, firstly, to survey the existing definition approaches on architecture. Secondly, we propose a model for architecture design which articulates the potential linkage between two principle concepts: synthesis and abstraction. Our proposal model focuses on abstraction concept and permits an effective top-down design approach. It helps also designers to more respond to issues that characterize architecture design.enCopyright: Cranfield University 2009System architectureConceptModelSynthesisAbstractionConference paper