Modular Man Illustration Circa 1955 (Photo By Gail)

In 1945, the architect Le Corbusier (born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) introduced the Modulor, a proportional system for design intended to function as “a harmonious measure to the human scale” and illustrated by a 5-foot-9-inches tall silhouette, drawn in an active posture with one arm raised.

Combining the proportions of a “median human“ and the golden ratio, the system was supposed to help architects define the relative dimensions of furniture,  Architectural elements, and ultimately entire buildings.

Despite its fabricated nature and assumption of a universal user, the Modulor reverberated for decades in global architectural discourse, and informed many of Le Corbusier’s postwar projects, including the Z.H.L.C Exhibition Pavilion in Zürich.

Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City