October is National Architecture Month, also known in some circles as Archtober. To commemorate the month, I am going to post a brief post every day of the month.
In the modern era, Le Corbusier, the great Swiss-French architect, one of the Modern Masters of Architecture, developed a method of proportioning and sizing he call “Le Modulor”. The image he used to illustrate the idea was inspired by DaVinci’s Ideal Man. Le Corbusier’s image is called “The Modulor Man”:
Using statistics the French had gathered based on the “average French policeman”, Le Corbusier developed a series of standard dimensions for counter heights, window sill heights, window sizes, ceiling heights, stair risers, every aspect of building.
He worked on this during WWII and applied it to all of his post war buildings. He tinkered with it over time, but it remained mostly the same. Again, he was recognizing that architecture is for us. He wanted to develop a system to ensure that architecture would always be convenient and always be at the right scale.
by 
