Editing Le Corbusier (section)

===Modulor===
{{Main|Modulor}}

The [[Modulor]] was a standard model of the human form which Le Corbusier devised to determine the correct amount of living space needed for residents in his buildings. It was also his rather original way of dealing with differences between the metric system and the British or American system since the Modulor was not attached to either one.

Le Corbusier explicitly used the [[golden ratio]] in his [[Modulor]] system for the [[scale (ratio)|scale]] of [[proportion (architecture)|architectural proportion]]. He saw this system as a continuation of the long tradition of [[Vitruvius]], [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s "[[Vitruvian Man]]", the work of [[Leon Battista Alberti]], and others who used the proportions of the human body to improve the appearance and function of architecture. In addition to the [[golden ratio]], Le Corbusier based the system on [[anthropometry|human measurements]], [[Fibonacci number]]s, and the double unit. Many scholars see the Modulor as a humanistic expression but it is also argued that: "It's exactly the opposite (...) It's the mathematization of the body, the standardization of the body, the rationalization of the body."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/arts/design/le-corbusiers-architecture-and-his-politics-are-revisited.html|title=New York Times|last=Donadio|first=Rachel|date=12 July 2015|website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

He took Leonardo's suggestion of the golden ratio in human proportions to an extreme: he sectioned his model human body's height at the navel with the two sections in golden ratio, then subdivided those sections in golden ratio at the knees and throat; he used these golden ratio proportions in the [[Modulor]] system.

Le Corbusier's 1927 Villa Stein in [[Garches]] exemplified the Modulor system's application. The villa's rectangular ground plan, elevation, and inner structure closely approximate golden rectangles.<ref name=padovan>{{cite book|last=Padovan|first=Richard|title=Proportion: Science, Philosophy, Architecture|date=2 November 1999|page=320|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-419-22780-9|quote=from Le Corbusier, ''The Modulor'' p. 35: "Both the paintings and the architectural designs make use of the golden section."}}</ref>

Le Corbusier placed systems of harmony and proportion at the centre of his design philosophy, and his faith in the mathematical order of the universe was closely bound to the golden section and the Fibonacci series, which he described as "rhythms apparent to the eye and clear in their relations with one another. And these rhythms are at the very root of human activities. They resound in Man by an organic inevitability, the same fine inevitability which causes the tracing out of the Golden Section by children, old men, savages, and the learned."{{sfn|Padovan|1999|page=316}}