Cardboard Architecture: when code looks clean but nobody understands it
· 5 min read
Cardboard Architecture: when code looks clean but nobody understands it
Some projects give a great first impression when you open them:
- Well-organized folders:
core,domain,infrastructure,services,helpers… - Classes with serious names:
UserService,OrderManager,PaymentHandler… - Extensive documentation, diagrams, detailed README…
And yet, when you try to follow how the system actually works, you find something very different: methods calling other methods calling other methods, layers that only delegate, business logic scattered across the repository… and you thinking:
“This looks architectural, but understanding it is painful.”
That’s what I like to call cardboard architecture: it looks solid on the outside but doesn’t really hold the weight of the business inside.