The book is intended to teach the reader to understand architecture primarily as an art form. In seven chapters, which the author, in accordance with the long-standing tradition of architectural treatises, called “books”, it tells about the main design solutions, about the fact that the creative will of the architect is directed not only at walls and ceilings, but also at the spaces between them, about how ideas about the structure of the external world and the labyrinths of internal worlds are reflected in architecture. Finally, the publication will help to get acquainted with the main stages of the general history of architecture, with which style follows which and why. An important part of the publication is the illustrative component. These are more than 380 illustrations - photographs, engravings, paintings, which present masterpieces of Michelangelo, Le Corbusier, Alexey Shchusev, Konstantin Melnikov and other outstanding architects. The publication is addressed to a wide range of readers interested in architecture and the history of art.