Sunday, September 19, 2010

Le Corbusier, The Modulor

Quotes of importance:

"...unless it is divided into sections and measured."

"If a tool of linear or optical measures, similar to musical script, were placed within our reach, would it help in the process of construction?"

Dislocation: "It is dislocated in relation to its subject, which is to contain men."

"Music like architecture, is time and space."

"The first proof of existence is to occupy space."


"Architecture, sculpture, and painting are, by definition, dependent on space, tied down to the necessity to come to terms with space, each by it's own means. The essential point I wish to make is that the key to aesthetic emotion is a function of space."


What I think:

This book begins by bringing us back to the creation of something we take for grated; written music. As he is writing about the creation of written music you begin to realize that this concept is a crazy one. This is, at least for me, how I have felt about creating a unit of measurement. I must have thought that the world was created with units of measure already in play! Measuring something that is completely intangible was a really big deal and he talks about how we still to til day have not some up with something of this caliber.
He goes on to discuss the foot-and-inch and metric system. He talks about how the first system uses the human body (something everyone can relate to and understand) and how the second system is disconnected from man using the earth as the tool.
I have to be honest, the middle to last part of this book gets a little confusing to me. Therefore, I will just explain what I understand of it. A French man comes up with a unit of measurement for American industry. He is told that there is only one way to measure architecture but find another way. The Module ends up being a measure that is based on math and the human scale. This is important because when measuring, building things, ect. you need something concrete and real behind it, not just ideas.

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