Excerpts From Le Modular, Le Corbusier

Figure 1: Le Modulor, the standing man with a raised arm.

"The Modulor" or Le Modulor created by the architect, Le Corbusier is an anthropometric scale of proportions that used to determine the unit proportions in architecture, technology, and his furniture design. Le Corbusier described "The Modulor" as a measure which based on human scale and mathematics, numbers and the blue and red lines. We can often see the presence of repeated silhouette appears: The Modulor Man in Le Corbusier's buildings and arts. The Modulor man is a six-foot man supposedly based on the height of the detectives in the English crime novels that LeCorbusier enjoyed. This system is based on three aspects: human measurements, the Fibonacci numbers, and the golden ratio.

Figure 2: The "Stele of the Measure" at the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille.

Le Corbusier created the Modular by following the Vitruvian Man that made by Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian polymath, and others attempt to figure out mathematical proportions in the human body and how it improves the architecture, furniture, art, and technology. Besides, the Fibonacci Numbers is about the sequence of number in which the first number is 0, the second number is 1, then the following number is equal to the sum of the previous two numbers of the sequence. Next, the Golden Ratio (1.618) also called as golden mean or golden section. The golden ratio talk about the ratio of two quantities is in Golden Ratio if the sum of those quantities and the larger one in the same as the ratio between the larger one and the smaller.

Figure 3: The Golden Ratio in geometry: Golden spirals

The Le Modulor has shown the Modular Man in six-foot height (about183cm) man with the raised arm (to 226cm) was placed into a square that the ratio from the height of the man (183cm;6') to the height of his navel (at midpoint of 113cm) was in a Golden Ratio. Based on the basic plot at the Le Modular are 113,70, and 43cm. When they combined, they will be other measurements that related to the Modulor. For example:43+70=113,113+70=183 and 113+70+43=22, the three results determine the space human body occupies.

Therefore, the Golden Ratio can be found in the Capital Complex in Chandigarh designed by Le Corbusier. Besides that, we can also see the Golden Ration from the facade of the Unite D'Habitation in Marseilles by Le Corbusier.

Figure 4: Capital Complex in Chandigarh with Golden Spirals.

Last but not least, I admire Le Corbusier's creativity and the courage to create what he felt is needed in the construction field and can help in the art field. He is a great artist to the architecture of the world although the Modular Man he created is not accepted by all.




Written by: Kong Yi Xuan 1001852931