In engineering, a housing is a container, a protective exterior or an enclosing structural element designed to enable easier handling, provide attachment points for internal mechanisms, maintain cleanliness of the contents by shielding dirt/dust, fouling and other contaminations, or protect interior mechanisms from structural stress and/or potential physical, thermal, chemical, biological or radiational damages from the surrounding environment.
Exterior case or enclosure used to protect an interior mechanism (considered an integral part of the equipment as opposed to packaging)