Corbu Modulor

“It's a language of proportions that makes the bad hard and the good easy.” This is what Prof. Dr. Albert Einstein said about the modulor.

Le Corbusier (1887-1965), a French architect, often known simply as "Corbu", was one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. His buildings and writings had a revolutionary effect on the international development of modern architecture. The modulor is a system of proportions proposed in the 1940’s by Le Corbusier and his colleagues.

The fundamental "module" of the Modulor is a six-foot (1829mm) man, allegedly based on the usual height of the detectives in the English crime novels Corbusier enjoyed. This Modulor Man is segmented according the "golden section", so his height to the navel is 1130mm which comes from 1829 * 0.618 = 1130 (i.e. the ideal navel position of human body) and his height with raised arms is assumed to be 2260mm, doubling of 1130cm(Figure 1). In order to better control the design and make it more in line with the human body scale, Corbu proposed the modulus theory. Its core lies in the attempt to use the approximate value of the golden section ratio of 0.618 to decompose the (European ideal) human body scale into easy to measure size. The most intuitive and interesting diagram is the red and blue ruler. The key value of red ruler is the Modulor Man’s height 1829cm and the blue ruler is his lifting height 2260cm. These proportions can be scaled up or down to infinity using a Fibonacci sequences (Figure 2).

As a unit of measurement, the modulor was used to introduce a module harmoniously linked human dimensions into modern architecture and artistic design and has had considerable influence on world architecture, especially design.

From the monumental concrete creation, Unité d'Habitation in Marseilles (completed 1952) onwards, Corbusier applied the Modulor to his buildings, including the government complexes he built in Chandigarh, India, and his rural retreat, Le Cabanon in the south of France.

This is an attempt to measure behavior and spatial scale with human body, trying to make the design more suitable for people's use habits. In essence, the modulus theory is a theory that can not be ignored in the architectural modulus system. It tries to control the design through a set of values and proportions, so as to make it penetrate from the whole to the details. Even if the data of white people can not represent the whole human race, and the ideal proportion of human body is difficult to find in practical cases, it will have a profound impact on future generations.

The three fundamental intrinsic values of the modulus (113-183-226) are the properties of the space occupied by a person with six feet tall. The golden ratio of 113 produces 70, thus giving rise to the first sequence named red ruler 4-6-10-16-27-43-70-113-183-296...... These values or dimensions can be used to depict the characteristics of human body in different postures (Figure 3), which has far-reaching significance and influence not only in architecture, but also in other industries such as furniture and household articles.

For lighting engineering services to human vision, it is particularly important for the design and manufacture of people-centered lighting equipment to consider the characteristics of human body modulor. Human has two eyes in front, their vision directions and vision fields are different when human body in different postures, so the people-centered lighting equipment should provide visual conditions in which people can function effectively, efficiently, and comfortably.

More details about the design of people-centered lighting equipment related to modulor, please check articles in ILLUMINATING PRACTICE.

Last update: September 10, 2020