4 unités LC - Architecture Insights

Building Blocks
20. The ‘Modulor Man’ of Le
Corbusier’s own system of
measurement.
A Universal Scale
The ‘Unité d’habitation’ was Le Corbusier’s first chance to try out
the new system of measurement that he had been working on – a
proportional system he named the Modulor. The ‘Unité
d’habitation’ was considered by Le Corbusier to be “the priciple
work which exemplifies the use of the Modulor [and] bears
witness to the harmony inherent in this range of dimensions.” 6
According to him, the use of this scale aided in the ‘humanisation’
of the ‘Unité’: “an immense building …appears familiar and
intimate.” 7
The ‘Modulor’ scale was based on the ‘human scale’, an idea
derived from Classical architectural teachings that the proportions
of the human body were ‘harmonious’ thus the application of these
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21. Le Corbusier and his
‘Modulor’ scale.
proportions to architecture resulted in an equal sense of harmony.
The scale utilised a six-foot man with a raised arm placed in a
square that was subsequently divided according to a mathematical
series derived from natural laws (the Golden Section and the
Fibonacci series). 8
Le Corbusier claimed that the scale was “universally applicable to
architecture and mechanics”. 9 It intended to facilitate the work of
the architect by providing a singular system from which the
dimensions of anything in architecture (no matter how big or how
small) could be determined. “It is a language of proportions that
makes it difficult to do things badly, but easy to do them well” 10
Le Corbusier liked to say, as an apparent quote from Albert