At a time of rapid advances in molecular biology, the term architecture may sound somewhat old-fashioned and reminiscent of topographical anatomy. Nevertheless, architecture implies a structure designed for a particular purpose and to accomplish a particular task. For the human gingiva, this task is protection. Gingival tissues are designed in their particular way because they must provide the framework for peripheral body defense. Both externally and internally, the human body is protected by a continuous surface lining, that is, the skin and the nasopharyngeal and gastrointestinal mucosa. By erupting through the mucosal lining, deciduous and later permanent teeth interrupt its continuity, thereby compromising its protective quality. A sophisticated system for repair, wound healing, is provided to seal off accidental breaches in this lining. However, where teeth perforate the lining, the continuity of the oral mucosa can only be restored by exfoliation or extraction of the teeth. For this reason, the tissues surrounding the teeth have been designed to provide a seal around the teeth (via the junctional epithelium and the epithelial attachment), to withstand the frictional forces of mastication and to defend the potential space between the teeth and the soft tissues against foreign invaders, such as microorganisms. These particular goals are achieved through a structural framework that allows defending cells to traverse various tissue compartments and act without disturbing basic tissue integrity. This chapter reviews and depicts the protective architecture of the human gingival tissues.