Vers Une Architecture, or Towards an Architecture is a philosophical and instructional text, first written by Le Corbusier in 1923. Le Corbusier wrote Towards an Architecture with the notion that it would guide, or even dictate the direction of architecture in the flourishing era of mass-production. Writing with the authority of a political leader, Le Corbusier states in the text: ‘The great problems of tomorrow: dictated by the collective needs [of today], pose the question of the [architectural] plan anew. Modern life demands await a new plan for the house and for the city’.

Vers Une Architecture marks the first time in Le Corbusier’s career that he explicitly describes his famous Five Points of a New Architecture- ‘piloti’ (columns raising the first floor from the ground), the ‘free plan’ and ‘free façade’ or use of a steel and concrete structure to eliminate the need for load-bearing interior or exterior walls, ‘ribbon’ or long horizontal windows to allow more internal light, and finally the roof garden to ensure a piece of nature for even the most urban, tightly cramped of dwellings. Although Le Corbusier underwent many personal reformations in his approach to architecture and interior design in the years following the publication of Vers Une Architecture, he was faithful to the 5 core architectural ‘points’ right through to his final build, ‘La Maison de L’Homme’ which was finished two years after his death in 1965.

What is particularly remarkable about Vers Une Architecture is how Le Corbusier’s concerns span so far beyond architecture in the physical sense. Le Corbusier posits architecture as a social imperative, with one chapter of Vers Une Architecture entitled ‘’Architecture or Revolution?’’ in which the architect suggests that the ills of modern society may be remedied by clean, geometrically harmonious homes which ‘allow space for the [human] spirit to breathe’.