Towards an architecture (originally, in French: Vers une architecture[1]​) is a book written by Le Corbusier and to a lesser extent by Amédée Ozenfant, who signed with the pseudonym Saugnier and whose authorship is only confirmed in the first edition.[2]​ The controversial book contains seven essays, all but one of which were published in the French art magazine L'Esprit Nouveau after 1921. The unabridged version appeared in 1923.[3]​ The book, with the aim of generating controversy and new points of view,[4]​ focused on the communicative possibilities of aesthetics and postulated the use of pure geometric lines and formal abstraction in architecture.[3]​.

Towards an Architecture not only reproduced the articles but also the editorial design of the magazine L'Esprit Nouveau. It used its characteristic graphical interface, which was innovative in the use of editorial techniques, which used images and not just words to construct the discourse. The magazine moved away from the framing effects and frontal gaze of popular nineteenth-century formats such as the photobook and the travel book common at the time (for example in the magazine L'Architecture Vivante, also founded in 1923. Le Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant chose to explore other possibilities: didactic montages, the synoptic vision, the visual-written narrative and the oblique gaze, which make it very entertaining. reading.[5]​.

Over time Towards an Architecture has become a fundamental work for the historiography of the architecture of the century and for the editorial culture in architecture. In the decades following the publication of this book, a rich subculture of architectural books developed in which visual discourse had great weight. Innovative techniques such as didactic montage, visual discourse and even humor that L'Esprit Nouveau explored are continued in new books. The extraordinary element of this work is that it brought the communication techniques of the avant-garde to the architecture book, opening new possibilities for communicating and thinking about architecture.[5]​.

As for the contents, in addition to showing in general terms Le Corbusier's conception of architecture,[6]​ it is one of the works that has most influenced the development of modern architecture. The chapters, which correspond to different articles that appeared in the magazine, are of different qualities.[1]​.

From this book comes Le Corbusier's famous definition of architecture, in turn inspired by another by Provensal:[7]​.

Other famous quotes from this book are the concept of housing as a living machine and the appearance of Modulor.[2]​.