As someone who loves the built environment but went into software, do you have any resources to explore architecture fundamentals? Any path to follow to grow on those fundamentals? I have a Arch 101 in from college under my belt.
Architect here also.. I'm realising that we not that rare in HN..
I would say that learning architecture is a bit like learning chess. To grow fundamentals you need time to study the basic moves, general strategies and specific tactics. A good mentor helps a lot.
Computer languages are a good analogy for styles. You have battle tested styles, like Java or C++, that you are sure will do the job but they don't excite anyone anymore. Then you have Haskell or Clojure or Rust..
To have an idea where the Architecture fringe stands nowadays, look at my blogs [0][1], specially the one on architectural drawings. Stuff there had won or can be a basis to win prizes. I believe that for a layman it's not an easy task to understand why most drawings there are interesting like it's not understandable for a layman what makes a piece of code/software great. It takes years to fully understand all the nuances in a field of thought.
My advice would be to start with a piece or several pieces of architecture and research the architect behind them. Explore more of their work along with other architects of a similar style or within the same movement (i.e. Le Corbosier and Mies Van der Rohe). Look at earlier buildings in their careers and compare them to later work and try to see what changed and why. Architecture doesn't happen in a vacuum and typically has rather reactionary elements to it, so what are those. Repeat this process with different architects or movements, and invariably you'll find a lot to explore.
Lastly, Architecture is experiential, and it's tough to simply look at drawings and understand space. Two of my favorite buildings are thousands of miles and thousands of years apart; the Pantheon in Rome, and the Seattle Public Library by Rem Koolhaas. The reason why I love both buildings is that there is nothing that comes close to being in those spaces. Regardless of the the design, methodology, aesthetic, or history of either building, the space evokes something.
That's a meandering non-answer, but that's my take on it.