ABSTRACT
So far we have examined how the Vitruvian Figure operates within recent
architectural discourse. This chapter turns towards another frequently
referenced model of the relationship between the body and architecture-Le
Corbusier’s Modulor. I am not interested in serving as apologist or critic
of Le Corbusier’s apparent attempt to re-invent the Vitruvian Figure for a
modern age. Instead, here I want to examine how it operates as a historical
object through which current discourse is constructed. Knowing this allows
a better understanding of what is at stake in the coming chapters’ examina-
tion of the body in modern architectural history. What I will try to indicate
is that, whatever else the Modulor may be or might have been, it has played
an oddly useful role within recent discourses of the body in architecture.
