Crossword Genius

Buildings together in crescent, say, given cutting-edge quartet of features? (12)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

architecture

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'quartet of features?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.

'buildings together in crescent say given cutting-edge' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'crescent' could be 'arc' (I've seen this before) and 'arc' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for architecture that I've seen before include "principles of design" , "Art of building design" , "Branch of design Goethe called frozen music" , "Style of building design" , "Structure of buildings" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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